Housing stock in Galway city and county is set to benefit from significant improvement works to existing supply, as well as the provision of additional social and voluntary housing, after it was announced this week that funding of nearly €4 million has been allocated to both local authorities.
Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan announced on Tuesday the details of housing capital allocations to local authorities nationwide worth some €251.5 million for 2012. The funding will support investment under the national regeneration programme, works to improve the standard and energy efficiency of the national social housing stock, as well as meeting commitments under existing contracts for delivering social and voluntary houses. It is understood that a multi-annual capital investment programme for new housing construction projects is set to be announced in detail later this year.
Galway County Council is to receive a total of €2,000,750 while Galway City Council will receive a total of €1,969,614. Welcoming the announcement Labour Senator Lorraine Higgins said that the significant funding will go a long way in improving the standard and efficiency of the housing stock and in providing extra social and voluntary housing throughout Galway. “There is a huge demand for all housing authorities as a result of the downturn with more people seeking social housing. As a representative I have been made aware of a number of vacant properties in the county and city. The funding will provide for substantial works to be carrried out. I am delighted to hear that funding has been made available so that these houses can be re-let and significant works can take place to bring the housing stock up to standard. If the houses are not re-let consistently this results in a huge loss of revenue to the exchequer and at this present time this is something we can’t afford. We live in financially constrained times and I know that Minister O’Sullivan had to battle very hard to get these figures,” said Senator Higgins.
Announcing the funding Minister O’Sullivan had also pointed to the fact that social housing capital budget had declined significantly in recent years but that the Government has made significant efforts to protect budgets for homelessness, regeneration, and grants for the elderly and the disabled. The minister also said that €691 million is set to be made available to her in capital and current funding to support a broad range of measures under the Social Housing Investment Programme for 2012. Of this, capital funding of €390 million will be provided for housing construction, regeneration, and improvement works this year, while the current budget will support flexible housing supply models based around the leasing of properties, including properties being made available by NAMA this year.
Minister O’Sullivan concluded: “The need for social housing is still growing and we need to deliver bigger numbers of social housing in different ways... I am confident that across all measures, we will deliver between 3,500 and 4,000 additional social housing units this year. Additionally, investment in improving the social housing stock is expected to make some 1,500 properties, which are vacant at present, available for re-letting this year.”
