More powers for councils for home loans, CPO, and serviced sites
A new affordable purchase scheme, and powers to purchase vacant homes are among the sweeping new powers to be given to councils. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
Powers over major planning decisions will be returned to local authorities as councils are given new powers and funding to tackle the housing crisis locally.
Councils will also be given sweeping powers to purchase vacant homes and will have a new local authority-led affordable purchase scheme, targeting average prices of €250,000.
The Housing for All document earmarks local authorities as key to solving the affordability and supply crises, with the affordable purchase scheme among the headline efforts being made.
It is described in the document as a measure that will see "new homes delivered, many built by local authorities in key areas facing the most acute affordability constraints" at prices averaging €250,000 with subsidies of up to €100,000 made available from the Affordable Housing Fund.
The local authority home loan will be expanded so that single applicants with a gross income of up to €65,000 in the Greater Dublin Area as well as Cork and Galway will be eligible and the interest rate will be reduced. The loan in its current form has had over 2,200 mortgage drawdowns in just over three years. The product will be changed by lowering the interest rate for new borrowers by 0.25%.
The state will also fund the purchase of land by local authorities to deliver new homes, as well as funding the purchase and resale of up to 2,500 vacant homes in their area using compulsory purchase orders if necessary and Housing Finance Agency (HFA) funding.
Long-term leasing of homes by local authorities will be ended, the document says, while councils will be used to support the repopulation and revitalisation of rural towns.
The document says:
Efforts will be made to improve the existing stock, with Local Authorities set to retrofit some 36,500 Local Authority homes by 2030.
