THE GOVERNMENT is to remove a range of incentives to home ownership under a new housing policy to be announced today.
The Housing Policy Statement will change the previous government’s encouragement of home ownership, on the basis that in the recent past much of the property bubble was caused by encouraging those who could never afford a mortgage to sign up to one.
The new policy, to be announced by Minister for State for Housing Willie Penrose, will instead concentrate on “more equitable treatment of tenures”.
According to Mr Penrose, “the overall strategic objective will be to enable all households access good quality housing appropriate to household circumstances and in their particular community of choice”.
The new policy will:
* Abolish all existing affordable housing schemes;
* review part V of the Planning and Development Act which obliges developers to sell a number of units as affordable homes.
* The review is likely to result in a greater emphasis in achieving social or “council” houses from part V. It seeks:
* the development of a vibrant, viable private rented sector through enforcement of higher minimum standards and increased security of tenure;
* An increasingly prominent role for the voluntary and co-operative housing sector, and
* Transfer of the rental supplement scheme to local authorities.
Mr Penrose said he hoped that “we will soon be in a position to announce the first social dividend project using Nama stock and involving one of the larger approved housing bodies”.
He added: “The Government’s new housing policy framework provides an ambitious programme for all who work in the housing sector.”
