Any move to merge city and county housing departments and set up regional housing authorities would be a backward step that would be an erosion of democracy and impact greatly on the lives of the 4,000 people left on the waiting list, that is according to Labour’s councillor Derek Nolan.
It was announced this week that Department of Environment officials are currently working on plans which could see housing departments in many city and county councils being merged and regional housing authorities being set up in an effort to save money and increase efficiency. The plan was mooted last July in the report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group which advised that certain departments in the city and county councils should be merged in order to make savings. The plan is due to be announced in the coming weeks before being put out for public consultation.
In response, general election candidate Cllr Nolan said that housing is the local authority’s most important role as it “impacts greatly on people’s lives”. He said that there is a lot of work done in striving to find housing for the 4,000 people currently on the waiting list and to break this link now would mean the “erosion of democracy and that layer of accountability”.
“It doesn’t make any sense. Housing is a completely local issue. Stripping away that direct local accountability, where officials are answerable to local representatives, will further erode local democracy and accountability. As local councillors we decide housing policy, we decide tenant policy and anti-social behaviour policy. We also witness when administration fails or is not up to scratch and we can raise these issues at Council level and have action taken. To take away the direct connection is to remove communication, accountability and the regular flow of communication.
If we cut that link it will be a disaster. We might save money but will it be worth it if the service suffers further? I certainly won’t be supporting it. It has the potential to create more strife and disconnection for people on that list. There are some people waiting for eight to nine years,” said Cllr Nolan, who went on to describe the plans as a “backward, bureacratic, and undemocratic step”.
Referring to attempts in the past to streamline the health boards by creating the HSE, Cllr Nolan said that this severely damaged accountability and administration. He said that “to create another centralised HSE type body for housing makes no sense at all”.
