MALLOW AFFORDABLE HOMES ‘AT LEAST 2 YEARS AWAY’

PEOPLE in Cork seeking get on the property ladder through the affordable housing scheme will have to wait for at least another two years before 250 planned new units are built.

The planned new houses include 50 units at St Joseph’s Road in Mallow, with the remaining houses situated in Kinsale, Clonakilty, Carriagaline and Midleton.

Under budget 2018 the government announced it was restating the scheme, which offers people who do not qualify for social housing, but still do not earn enough buy a home at current market prices, the chance to acquire subsidised sites.

In reply to a request by Cllr Seamus McGrath in which he sought a report on what funding Cork County Council had received for the planned houses, the authority’s director of housing, Maurice Manning said it had requested grant aid from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government for 250 serviced sites.

Mr Manning said that it would cost €13.8 million to provide the sites with services such as water, sewage and roads.

However, Cllr McGrath was less than impressed when told that the council had yet to hear back from the department in relation to grant aid for the units, despite applying for the funding in July.

He said that given the current housing crisis the delay was “unacceptable.”

“It’s not happening fast enough. The urgency is not there. I’m not blaming the council for this, its the department that is moving at a snails pace,” said Cllr McGrath.

He said that, taking into account construction time, none of the affordable units would be completed for at least 18-months to two years.

“We need to inject a sense of urgency here,” said Cllr McGrath.

County council chief executive Tim Lucey said that with planning permission and design and construction of the necessary infrastructure it “would be at least another two years minimum” before any of the 250 homes would get under way.

Mallow-based Cllr Gearóid Murphy stressed the importance of securing the funding for the units, pointing out that the issue of affordable housing was one of the topics mots raised by people in the lead up to this year’s local elections.

Fermoy’s Cllr Frank O’Flynn said it was “disappointing” the council had a list of housing projects ready to go but not the necessary funding needed to start them. Warming to the subject, Cllr O’Flynn said that while the houses in Mallow were welcome, there should be more affordable sites identified in the North Cork area, pointing out there was “huge demand” for such sites in Fermoy and Mitchelstown.