Leitrim councillor believes Minister should cap rents to help struggling families

Cllr Brendan Barry has called on the Housing Minister, Darragh O'Brien to cap rents to help struggling families if he is not willing to increase the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) rent limits for Leitrim.

The comments came after Niamh Redmond, the private secretary of Minister O'Brien, sent a response following a request by councillors to see an increase in Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) rent limits for the county.

The call for an increase had been made at a Council meeting last year and received unanimous support.

In the letter, noted at the January Council meeting, Ms Redmond, on behalf of Minister O'Brien said that “increased rent limits for HAP and the Rent Supplement Scheme were introduced in 2016.

“These limits were agreed in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection (DSP).

“In reviewing the rent limits, my Department worked closely with DSP and monitored data gathered from the Residential Tenancies Board and the HAP Shared Services Centre.”

The letter went on to state that HAP rent limits were “increased significantly, in the order of 60% in some cases”.

It was argued that “any undertaking to increase the current HAP monthly rent limits would have to be undertaken on a whole of country basis rather than for an individual local authority” and concern was expressed over the potential “negative inflationary impacts” such increases could have “leading to a detrimental impact on the wider rental market, including for those households who are not receiving HAP support”.

It was noted that the operation of HAP would be “kept under review” adding: “Under Housing for All, the Department will undertake an analytical exercise to examine whether an increase in the level of discretion available to Local Authorities under HAP is required, in order to maintain adequate levels of HAP support.”

However Cllr Barry expressed his disappointment with this response.

He said that more needed to be done to address the issue impacting renters, in particular those on HAP.

“Rental costs in Leitrim have increased 17% in Leitrim and families cannot afford this cost even with HAP support,” he said.