Sligo County Council On Course For 366 New Builds
Sligo County Council On Course For 366 New Builds By 2021
"Sligo County Council will have delivered 23 houses by the end of October and construction will commence on a further 66 by the end of the year."
Pointing to the Council’s targets under the government’s ‘Rebuilding Ireland ’ Programme, he considered 89 units a good start to the delivery of at least 366 housing units up to 2021. ‘That’s 366 new builds’ he stressed ‘but we will continue to purchase and lease existing houses to add to our stock as we did with 69 purchases and 11 leases since 2016.’ (Detail below)
Housing Programme 2018-2021
|
Location |
No of Dwellings |
|
Fr O FlanaganTce, Sligo |
22 |
|
Culleens: |
1 |
|
Knappagh Road, Sligo |
28 |
|
St Josephs Tce, Sligo |
1 |
|
Collooney |
15 |
|
Cuan Iosa Ballymote |
8 |
|
SRD at Rathgoonaun |
1 |
|
Rosses Point Road, Cartron |
14 |
|
Connolly Park Tobercurry (Phase 1) |
10 |
|
Dromore West |
10 |
|
Connolly Park Tobercurry (Phase 2) |
12 |
|
Maugheraboy, Sligo |
62 |
|
Carrowbunnaun |
42 |
|
Carney |
25 |
|
Rathellen – PPP |
80 |
|
Doorly Park, Sligo |
20 |
|
The Mall Sligo |
15 |
|
TOTAL |
366 |
County wide programme
Sligo County Council Senior Executive Officer Housing, Joe Murphy, said the planning and delivery of a major housing programme was a complex undertaking involving many strands of activity. ‘There are schemes throughout the county, and the towns of Collooney, Ballymote, Tubbercurry, Strandhill, Carney, Dromore West and Sligo can expect to see signs of the Council’s construction activity in their area within in this programme. We will also be looking at delivering new affordable homes in Sligo during that period’’.
Speed and flixibility
While increasing supply though new builds is absolutely necessary and urgent, building takes time. Acquiring and leasing existing properties affords us speed and flexibility in a time of unprecedented demand for social housing. The majority of these units have been allocated to households on the Housing List. Some units still require remedial works to bring to a standard suitable for allocation and these will then be allocated at that stage.
Sligo County Council expects to acquire a number of other housing units, currently at sale agreed stage or contract signed stage before the end of this year. In addition we expect delivery of an additional 6 leased units later this month.
Voids Programme
Returning Vacant Social Housing Properties to Productive Use Programme (Voids) is another important initiative. This Programme is directed at housing units where the cost of remediation greatly exceeds the cost of the normal end-of-lease maintenance. Since 2016, 164 no. units have been returned to productive use by the Council and allocated to households on the waiting list. In addition works are progressing/being tendered on a further 38 units.
Sligo County Council also administers a scheme for the remediation/ return of long term vacant/derelict social housing units, where the cost of Unit repair had to exceed €30,000. 20 houses have been remediated by the Council under this Programme since 2016 and all are newly occupied.