*The Francis St site is expected to be the home of the county’s first affordable housing scheme.
THIRD PARTIES need to be left out of plans to develop affordable housing schemes in Clare while senior officials in the Council have promised “a top class” scheme will be delivered in Ennis.
Clare County Council have been requested by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide detailed applications for specific developments to allow the local authority gain access to the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF), through the Housing for All programme.
On foot of this, the Council launched an Expression of Interest (EOI) Campaign which ran until the end of December seeking proposals from developers to deliver affordable homes in Ennis and Shannon.
In accordance with the Affordable Housing Act 2021, the Council prepared a Scheme of Priorities (SOP) which has received Ministerial approval recently, and was adopted by the elected members at the September Council meeting. This SOP will be referenced regarding the future allocation of affordable homes.
Extending this expression of interest window from the end of November to the end of 2023 was questioned by Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND). “We had a meeting of the Social Development SPC last week and we were informed the Francis St site is in the ownership of Clare County Council and they were drawing up plans for an affordable housing scheme, the concept has to be brought out there, our PR team need to do a better job on getting the word out to the people, it is aimed at people on lower income, they need intervention to buy these houses. I am happy that Clare County Council own the site, I appeal to you Chief Executive to support officials going forward to have urgency. Over 1,000 people could buy their own home through this scheme, leave the third parties out of it”.
This extension will not delay any submissions, Director of Services, Anne Haugh stressed. She confirmed that the Council had two schemes before the Department pending approval.
Her comments were supported by the Chief Executive, Pat Dowling who acknowledged Cllr Flynn’s point was “well made”. He added, “Clare was not eligible for any affordable scheme until four or five months ago until we pushed it and pushed it, one cannot doubt the priority we are giving it, there is a clear intent. The Francis St site is the scheme to give effect to it, we can differ on the methodology of getting there, the reality is we want the outcome to be a top class affordable housing scheme, it will be delivered”.
