Clare County Council claims “under-occupancy” in social homes is keeping families on the housing list.
Local representatives are pointing to infrastructural shortfalls and bottlenecks in the planning system as a new report has found the local authority must boost its social housing stock by almost 60% to meet demand.
The report published by the Parliamentary Budget Office identifies 2,440 households, or 4,570 people, as having an ‘ongoing need’ for social housing in Clare.
This means they are on the social housing list or on the Housing Assistance Payment and are eligible for a council home but aren’t currently living in one.
In order to cater to this cohort, which accounts for 5% of the county, Clare County Council has been advised to increase its social housing stock by 58%.
Chairperson of the Council’s Social Development Strategic Policy Committee, Sixmilebridge Fine Gael Councillor John Crowe, says much-needed homes aren’t being built because of the “crippling” lack of required infrastructure.
Clonlara Independent Councillor Michael Begley meanwhile believes streamlining the planning system would allow developments to come on stream more quickly.
There are currently 2,700 households on the housing list in Clare, with Ennis, Shannon and Clarecastle being the areas of highest demand.
Senior Executive Officer of Clare County Council’s Housing Delivery, Infrastructure Provision and Land Activation Directorate, Padraig MacCormaic, claims “quite a number” of social homes aren’t fully occupied.
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