Party advocates cross-subsidised public rental model as an alternative to the scheme
Cllr. Éilis Ryan
The Workers’ Party today (Tuesday July 19th) criticised “affordable rental” proposals contained in the government’s ‘Rebuilding Ireland’ housing strategy.
Under the ‘Affordable Rental’ proposal, the government would establish a €10 million annual fund to deliver 2,000 “affordable rental” units through private landlords – or a €416 / month subsidy to each private landlord participating in the scheme.
Commenting, Workers’ Party Councillor Éilis Ryan said:
“Under the so-called ‘Affordable Rental’ scheme, the state will simply step in to top-up the difference between what tenants can afford, and the exorbitant rents which landlords can continue to charge. Already in this country, we pay an estimated €50 million each month in subsidies to landlords. There is nothing “affordable” about expanding this further.”
Councillor Ryan and the Workers’ Party have been campaigning to prevent the use of similar so-called “affordable rental” units on the O’Devaney Gardens site in North Inner City Dublin, calling for the government to raise the cap on income thresholds to access housing lists, to bring more households into the public housing system.
Councillor Ryan said:
“We hear time and again that the reason for selling off public housing is that Irish families want to own their own home. And yet, the government’s “Affordable Rental” proposal itself states that ‘the advantages of rental as a form of tenure are more widely recognised.’” It seems there is no difficulty with increasing the numbers of families renting long-term through the private sector.
“Instead of expanding subsidies to a bloated private rental sector, the best value solution is for the state to provide public-rental housing to any household that wants it, as outlined in our ‘Solidarity Housing’ proposals.”
The Workers’ Party launched “Solidarity Housing,” a fully-costed proposal for expanding the public rental sector to middle income households, in May 2016. It is available to download at www.workersparty.ie/policy