Council urged to take out 'massive' loan for housing

Councillors in Mayo are calling on council management to take out a “massive loan” to build 400 social and affordable houses.

The matter came before the council's recent strategic policy committee (SPC) for housing where a proposal was put forward to build 100 houses per year over the next four years. Council management has also been tasked to seek permission from the Department of Housing to take out large-scale loans to cover the costs involved.

The proposal was mooted by committee chairperson Fine Gael Cllr Peter Flynn after the council's Head of Housing Olivia Gallagher revealed that there are currently expressions of interest to develop 20 affordable houses in Castlebar, at a rate of 10 houses per year for two years, and possibly one other similar plan.

This was deemed as extremely low in ambition by members, with Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne referring to a public survey showing 700 expressions of interest for affordable housing in Mayo.

“Why are we dependent on discussions with private developers anyway?" he asked. "We should be taking green-field sites and preparing schemes ourselves.”

Independent Cllr Harry Barrett said the council was more productive in building houses 50 years ago.

“We have to be really ambitious. Yes, we should take out that loan, go into debt, start to take control of things, where we can see new sites opened up, with infrastructure and service connections in place so that the council can build. Our main strategy has to be house building.” 

Fianna Fáil Cllr Brendan Mulroy also agreed with the proposal. 

"We have the land now, and are going to have loads by Christmas (under new government re-zoning guidelines), so why not be proactive ourselves and get a loan. No one will blame us for going into debt if we’re building houses left, right and centre. We have been very active on social houses across the county so now we need to get going on affordability. We have the land zoned, let’s take it over.” 

Cllr Mulroy added that 400 houses “is an aspirational figure and could be 500 or more”, noting: “We have a budget coming up with 30 elected members to approve it. We are directors of this company. Let us stand up and take out a massive loan and build across the county. No Housing Minister will let that fail. It will be history-making, history breaking. Let’s take the bull by the horns and deliver the houses. We are not going to fail on this and should be first in the door to buy new houses for first-time buyers also.” 

Cllr Peter Flynn proposed the 400-house target over the next four years, saying: “We borrowed the money before as an urban council to build houses and paid it back with rents received.” His proposal was approved by members with the Head of Housing promising to conduct a new survey on affordable housing to assess current need.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme