Major increase in number of houses completed in Tipperary in the first nine months of the year

The progress made on housing projects in the Clonmel district has been welcomed by Cllr Pat English, but with 619 applicants on the housing list the pressure needs to be maintained to have more schemes built in the district, he has stated.

Speaking at a meeting of Clonmel Borough District, Cllr English welcomed the fact that Tipperary has the highest allocation of housing grants in the country this year.

This was an area where Tipperary has done well and he extended his compliments to the county council’s staff, who he said were very professional and available at all times.

Cllr English asked when the 16 vacant council houses in the district would be available for occupation, as it seemed there was very little work to be done to them; and how many homes would undergo energy efficiency works next year.

He also claimed that the homeless situation is growing all the time.

The average rent in Clonmel for a three-bedroom house is between €1,400 and €1,600 and lots of people are living with their families. He said it was nearly impossible to secure accommodation through the HAP (Housing Assistance Payments) scheme.

Cllr English also asked when the scheme of cluster houses in Kilsheelan would be up and running, as they had been talking about this for the last four years.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose said they were making great progress, although if you were one of the 619 applicants on the list in the Clonmel district you would think that you would never get a house.

There had been a fifty percent increase in the number of houses completed in Tipperary in the first nine months of 2023 and she paid tribute to the council management and staff for the phenomenal amount of work they were doing.

Three housing schemes had already been completed in Clonmel this year and others were under construction.

Outside of the cities, Tipperary was really punching above its weight in accessing funding for housing. While there were still 619 applicants on the list in Clonmel, they had to bear in mind that for ten years there had been no housing construction, she said.

District Mayor Richie Molloy said that while Tipperary was punching above its weight, he was also very conscious of families who couldn’t secure a HAP property and it wasn’t easy for the more than 600 people who were still on the housing list.
It was also frustrating for people in reasonably good jobs who couldn’t secure a mortgage.

Cllr John FitzGerald said that the RAS (Rental Accommodation Scheme) worked better than HAP because the council stepped in and took over the day-to-day issues with landlords.

People were left to their own devices to some extent in the HAP scheme.

District Manager Sinead Carr told Cllr Niall Dennehy that a proposed new initiative where local authority tenants could lease a room tax free wouldn’t affect their rent assessment or Living Alone Allowance.

She also stated that since June 2022, approximately 256 notices to quit had been issued between HAP and RAS properties.

Tipperary County Council’s Housing Administrative Officer Shane Grogan said that a lot of work went into housing loans, and 68 applications had been received so far this year.

Staff spent a lot of time with applicants to make sure that their applications to housing agencies were right.

He told Cllr Ambrose that the council would be ready to send out a call for the construction of an affordable housing scheme in Clonmel in the first quarter of next year.

Shaun Lonergan, Executive Engineer in Housing, said that 15 houses in the Clonmel district would have received an energy retrofit by the end of this month. 100 houses in the county had received an energy retrofit this year and they would be aiming for the same number next year.

The Kilsheelan cluster scheme was with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and it’s anticipated that they would go ahead with twelve units next year, he stated.