Over 2,000 on housing
list
DONEGAL County Council has been urged to look into
the possibility of purchasing houses for those on
the council’s housing list, at least for unique
situations involving large families.
Making the call at last week’s budget meeting in
Lifford, Cllr Francis Conaghan suggested that,
considering the state of the current housing market,
he hoped the council would be actively buying
houses.
The Fianna Fail party whip suggested that under the
current market the council should be pressing ahead
with such a policy and he said he would be asking to
have the matter on the next agenda of the council’s
housing policy committee.
“I want this on the agenda at the next meeting to
iron out any policy difficulties that might prevent
this from happening,” he said.
Fine Gael’s party whip Terence Slowey backed the
call for the council to embark on a policy of
purchasing houses, claiming that in the current
market the council could purchase houses cheaper
than designing and building them.
Earlier in the meeting County Manager Michael
McLoone who described the council as “the biggest
landlord in the county,” indicated that there were
2,224 people on the housing lists across the county.
He also indicated that 66% of those on the lists now
are single, something he described as ‘as drastic
change in the family unit looking for council
houses.’
However while the council members were told the
council has presently over 3,000 houses to be
maintained, figures released at the budget meeting
also showed that arrears in rent from those
properties at the end of 2008 was over €1 million.
That figure represented an increase of €17,675
between January 1 2008 and December 31 2008 and
meant that 12% of money owed for rents remained
uncollected. The 88% of rents collected brought the
council in an amount of €7,368,806.
(Inishowen Independent) |
