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List of empty local authority houses

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    #62
    antoinolachtnai
    Registered Users Posts: 9,773 ✭✭✭antoinolachtnai


    A housing crisis in the mid-80s seems to have been dealt with by private developers. Section 23/27 delivered a lot of high density housing up until 2005.


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    #63
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    antoinolachtnai wrote: »
    A housing crisis in the mid-80s seems to have been dealt with by private developers. Section 23/27 delivered a lot of high density housing up until 2005.

    That was at the same time as there was still extensive development of council-owned housing, and not much in the way of social tenants going in to the privately developed properties. Its questionable if the tax revenue lost to reliefs was best 'spent' that way anyway.

    The large-scale development of council-owned housing stopped with the return of an FF/PD Government in 1997 and it still hasn't recovered.


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    #64
    antoinolachtnai
    Registered Users Posts: 9,773 ✭✭✭antoinolachtnai


    My information is that social housing output grew by 60 percent between 1997 and 2002.

    Dublin doesn’t particularly have a social housing crisis. The lack of housing for people on middle incomes is as big an issue (maybe bigger) as the lack of social housing.


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    #65
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    What proportion of those were bought from private developers rather than built by councils? FF-PDs outsourced construction to the private sector effectively.

    People on middle incomes can and do live in social housing in countries where it is implemented properly. It should the only a safety net system - it can and should actually pay for itself for the councils


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    #66
    Mrs OBumble
    Registered Users Posts: 25,697 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    L1011 wrote: »
    They used to build houses for direct sale themselves, either cash tender or council mortgages - but built on their contract, not separately by another developer, and with the profits retained by the Housing Department.

    Was that actually legal?

    I'm not familiar with public finance legislation in this country, but I can think of at least one country with a similar framework where it absolutely would not be allowed: public bodies cannot directly compete with private sector organisations, due to the unfair advantages (scale, legislative access) that the public sector bodies have.


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    #67
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    It was the 1940-60s, much of that type of legislation didn't exist yet. We don't need to do the now illegal bits.

    Other stuff they did that would be utterly illegal now included raffling council house tenancies to newlyweds annually (everyone up to middle class willlingly entered that) and selling cost-price houses to public servants with loans arranged via ICS Building Society


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    #68
    antoinolachtnai
    Registered Users Posts: 9,773 ✭✭✭antoinolachtnai


    One of the problems with social housing, in Ireland at least, is that the allocation turns into a political merry-go-round. I heard about a TD claiming credit for getting an AHB affordable house for a family in north Dublin city. Whether this is true or not I have no idea. (I actually doubt it.)

    The state aid rules certainly wouldn’t prohibit local authorities from developing private housing. But it would have to be fairly financed and structured.

    Maybe it would make sense to build apartments this way. But the local authorities really don’t have the capabilities for this type of development. If Mr Kenny’s remarks are anything to go by, they don’t have the vision either.


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