Report calls for creation of national housing body

A National Economic and Social Forum project team has called for the establishment of a national housing authority.

In a draft report on social and affordable housing and accommodation, discussed at a NESF plenary session in Dublin Castle yesterday, it said the authority "would provide strategic policy and advice to the Minister, local authorities, and other housing providers."

It would undertake research, monitoring and evaluation, with its membership appointed by Government and having its own independent support staff, the draft report says.

NESF chairwoman Ms Maureen Gaffney said the State had arrived at an historic moment when we had the resources available to make the idea of social housing "a high-quality, desirable option" for people.

She said there had been an increase of 43 per cent, to 50,000, in the housing waiting list between 1996 and 1999, and that with house prices forecast to rise by 20 per cent over the next three or four years there would be a whole new cohort of people who will not be able to afford to buy homes.

In such a context, she felt an emphasis on a high quality of life with an integrated mix of people in community could make social housing a real option for such people.

A national housing authority would be "the driving force behind that visionary approach," she said.

Other recommendations made in the draft report include that "good quality, secure affordable housing should be a social right and given statutory backing."

It calls for local-authority housing and maintenance systems to be "radically reformed and modernised" and for the social housing provision to be "substantially increased, with the aim of setting a timetable for the elimination of housing waiting lists".

"Priority should be given to those most excluded from good quality, secure and affordable accommodation, particularly those with low incomes and with specific housing needs."

Social housing should also, as a general principle, "promote social inclusion and the adequate provision for the special needs of particular groups".

Speaking at the plenary session, the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal, Mr Bobby Molloy, said that Ireland had by far the smallest housing stock in Europe relative to population, "with 335 houses per thousand population compared with 435 in the UK and an estimated EU average of 440 per thousand."

Detailing recently announced measures, he said: "The provision of suitable accommodation for all is a primary objective of this Government - and it is achievable."