Longford people being 'misinformed' about delivery of housing in the county

Longford County Council “have delivered more for social housing” than any other local authority in the country, one local elected representative has claimed.

In a notice of motion Councillor Paraic Brady called on Longford County Council to make available details of houses proposed for social housing in each municipal area for 2024 and 2025.
The Fine Gael representative asked that the data include a breakdown of housing waiting lists and how many social housing applications have been received to date.

Cllr Brady's motions asked that the local authority highlight how many housing schemes would accommodate people with disabilities, and those who sought independent living. The final part of the motions sought details of lands owned by Longford County Council.
“The electorate have been misinformed about our delivery on housing,” said Cllr Brady by way of explaining his motion.

He stated the Longford local authority record is one of the best: “The only place to get these facts is in the council chamber. When I heard people saying Longford county Council hasn't delivered on housing in the county it offends me, it offends my colleagues. The truth will come out in the chamber and I am sure the Director of Service, John Brannigan, can give us the facts and figures.”
Cllr Brady pointed to the local housing delivery: “Since I was elected to this council I feel I can safely say we have done more for people on social housing lists than any other county in the country. I think per head of capital we have delivered more for social housing.”

He said in some cases the public engagement with housing delivery has been underwhelming: “We have been fighting in this chamber for years for housing schemes for independent living and for affordable housing. The take up for affordable housing was not great.”
Cllr Garry Murtagh supported the motion adding that he concurred with the belief that Longford has done more in the area of social housing than any other local authority.

In his reply John Brannigan, the Director of Services with responsibility for Housing, Planning, Regeneration and Capital Projects, outlined the council's method of housing delivery: “We have a number of approaches to delivering social housing and bringing vacant housing back into use.
“That is a combination of using our own staff, direct bill with contractors we procure, and turnkey models where developers approach us with new housing schemes.”

In 2024 Longford County Council will deliver 19 houses in the Longford MD, 24 in the Ballymahon MD and 23 in the Granard MD: “Last year we reduced our vacancy rate, by the use of our own staff and local contractors. We changed our vacancy rate from 7% to down to 2%,” he said.
Mr Brannigan said the local authorities are active in the area of delivering on housing: “We currently have sufficient land in our own ownership to develop 70 new homes across the county, and we are continually looking at the market to see what lands are available and making prudent decisions.”

The Director of Service outlined details of the demand for housing: “We have 661 families on the housing waiting list. At present 300 of them are not availing of any housing support at the moment. In relation to independent living, we have spoken to a housing association for integrated living who support independent living.
“They have a number of units in Longford and we are looking to develop a new bespoke scheme on a site we have identified.”

Last year a proposed council affordable housing scheme only drew 30 expressions of interest from the public when it was announced: “That response was quite poor. We have since gone back to the Department and we are at an advanced stage of negotiations about another model that we will bring forward to members.”