€170m Stimulus Package Proposed for Social Housing

A €170m stimulus package which could provide over 3,000 social housing units and which would have a 50 per cent payback to the Exchequer in terms of taxes and savings has been proposed to the Government by the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH).

The ICSH believes that targeted capital projects should be continued for social housing even in the current economic climate because of the benefits to the State, including the revitalisation of so-called “ghost” or unfinished estates around the country.

In its pre-Budget submission to the Minister for Finance, ICSH says that a €170m stimulus could:

• Provide as many 3,200 social housing units
• Take thousands off growing local authority waiting lists
• Create and sustain as many as 1,500 jobs
• Pay a dividend to the Exchequer in the region of €75m in VAT, income tax and reduced social welfare payments

Speaking at the AGM of the Irish Council for Social Housing today (Tue), Mr Donal McManus, Executive Director, said: “Housing associations are ready to play their part in a national stimulus package. Investing in social housing provides a real economic and social return to the state through providing employment, utilising vacant homes and taking people off waiting lists”. “We can turn ‘ghost estates’ into homes and neighbourhoods” he added.

The ICSH is also recommending to the Government that greater borrowing capacity is made available in 2010 through the Housing Finance Agency to fund the voluntary housing sector. This would allow housing associations to draw down loans at lower interest rates than in the commercial market.

At the AGM, delegates were told that the budget for social housing in 2009 has already been scaled back to 2006 funding levels with a knock-on impact on the number of units being made available to those seeking housing, including the vulnerable and disadvantaged.

“Delivering housing solutions is an example of a public policy that stimulates the economy as well as providing a social return”, the ICSH said in its submission to Government, pointing out that in the current climate building and acquiring social housing provided much greater value-for-money.

The Council is also making the case for ensuring that 10,000 units of social housing are obtained from the NAMA portfolio of unsold homes. It also believes that land banks to be held by NAMA could be used for future social housing needs.

“If the State acquires these homes at written down value a significant impact can be made on the social housing waiting list of 56,000 households”, it said adding: “The opportunity to gain a social dividend from the current banking/development loans crisis exists through using NAMA to assemble land for social housing.”

The ICSH – which represents over 300 members providing social housing for over 22,000 households in over 500 communities – has expressed concern that the grants paid for the maintenance and upkeep of social housing schemes could be cut in the Budget and has warned that this type of short-term thinking would cost the State far more if housing estates fell into disrepair and had to be regenerated in the future. “This would have a hugely detrimental impact on the housing service to tenants and would jeopardise the maintenance of people’s homes,” it stated.