Government needs to change funding for social housing to grant or equity, Clúid says

Vivienne Clarke

The chief executive of the not-for-profit housing body Clúid has called on the government to change its funding from “100 percent debt” to a grant or equity.

Brian O’Gorman said Clúid was grateful for State funding and it took its responsibilities very seriously.

“But at the moment, the State is expecting us to develop housing using 100 per cent debt. So everything they give us is loans. What we're asking, we're not asking for more money, we're asking for some of that debt to be changed to a grant or equity, which will enable us to reduce our gearing and make us more investable," he said.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, O'Gorman said a change from 100 per cent debt would reduce the need for revenue payments “if the debt is less than we have to service".

“We know there is a significant period of trust here, but we think our track record in terms of everything that they give to housing associations is recycled. It's available to successive generations of Irish households. It's a public asset.

"We have members, such as the Iveagh Trust, which was developed before the foundation of the state, the properties that they developed before the foundation of the state.

"If they get a vacancy, they're available to another Irish household. So it's an investment. It's continually recycling to benefit successive generations of Irish households.”

O’Gorman said that any funding given to social and affordable housing “is a key to securing delivery and not just in the social and affordable housing space, but also in the private sector as well".

"Social and affordable housing often triggers the development of other private sector developments on the site. So we take out the first component of the site, allowing the private sector to get involved. So the aim is to create mixed tenure communities, so social affordable, but also private housing. So there's a mix of tenures within a scheme," he said.

The chief executive pointed out that the Department of Finance’s own figures indicated that “if we want to get to 50,000 homes per year by 2030, we will need the injection year on year of about €20 billion, €4 billion of that coming from the state".

"So €16 billion, the lion's share of that, coming from the private sector. So the agencies involved in delivery need to be made investment ready," he said.