Paul Murphy warns of council rent hikes under national rent plan

across Dublin City Council letters are dropping for council tenants and HAP tenants telling them that the people least able to afford to pay are going to see massive rent increases on average 30% Dublin City renters are getting organized I saw there was a big meeting last night there was a big meeting the week before there was a big meeting the week before that Owen O'Connorvon is involved in organizing those people the same is happening in South Dublin County Council in advance of a planned rent rise the question is is this part of national government policy and is this just the thin edge of the wedge that is going to see council rents and HAP rents rise and rise and rise Thank you Deputy for raising the question currently local authorities charge rent under the 1966 Housing Act which is known as the differential rent system and it's a critical piece of the state's welfare apparatus subsidizing housing costs and supporting households who cannot meet their long-term accommodation needs from their own resources the making or amending of such rent schemes is generally a matter for the executive of local authorities within the broad principles that are set out by my department including that rent levels should be based on income and reflect tenants ability to pay and also that they contain a hardship clause under which tenants can pay a reduced rent for a specified period and under certain circumstances local authorities should review the rent schemes regularly to ensure their scheme is equitable and appropriate to the household means the government's priority is to accelerate the delivery of social housing with a significant funding package to support this ambition it is therefore increasingly important that social housing supports are targeted appropriately and managed the fit managed efficiently central to this is ensuring that social housing rents charged remain appropriate to household means charging household structures to protect the most vulnerable households including those with children the current the current system of 32 individual rent schemes has its strengths rents can however vary widely which disparate approaches meaning social tenants on similar incomes can pay significantly different rents for similar properties merely because of the local authority area that they reside in the new housing plan delivering homes building communities commits to reviewing rents paid by local authorities and AHBs with with a view to introducing a national framework that provides a consistent and equitable system of rents and protects vulnerable households okay can the minister tell me I mean in this national framework that you're going to work towards are rents going to come down for any council tenants or are they just going to rise that's the simple question and the document and the delivering homes building community strategy is extremely worrying because it suggests moving away from a differential rent based system a system whereby people's rent is based on their income what they can afford to pay an extremely fair system and instead it refers to the housing commission recommendation of merging social and cost rental housing over time to form a single affordable rental sector based on the principle of cost recovery in other words not based on the principle of how much can people afford to pay but based on the principle of how much it does it cost cost to build the homes that would be an extremely retrograde regressive step which is moving in exactly the wrong direction and would result in even bigger rent increases for those who can least afford to pay so deputy ask the question would result in increased or decreased rents as I would have outlined in my initial response to you there is significant differences in rent schemes from local authority to local authority so somebody with the same income in one council may be paying more than other a similar income in a different local authority so the national framework which is contained within the housing plan there will be options that will come forward to Minister Brown in the in the second half of this year and obviously we'll look at what the best system and approach is at that point but it is true to say that some local authorities in their system you know it ranges between 10 and 20 percent of income secondary earners different approaches are taken we set a broad framework and it probably is appropriate now at this point that there is a more streamlined system where local authorities can't have as broad a range as what they've had heretofore look at principle I'm not against a streamlined system but I don't think any council tenants are going to believe you that you're going to streamline this downwards to the lowest levels instead everyone will hear what you're talking about that you're going to streamline to the highest possible levels and that will mean even more rent increases for people who simply cannot afford to pay and I'm telling you council tenants are getting organized in a very very significant way in Dublin City Council it's going to be a massive campaign it was only lost by one vote unfortunately Labour and the Greens voted to increase people's rents we're building a big campaign to reverse that in the next budget in South Dublin County Council we're ahead of it we're a year ahead of where they are in Dublin City Council and we've every chance of stopping this rent increase coming in can you explain to me what the idea of merging the cost rental and social housing systems would look like what does it mean to go for being based on the principle of cost recovery isn't that the end of the differential rent scheme if you implement that thank you deputy so look I think in the premise of your follow-up question there you're determining the outcome of that you're stating that the outcome of this will be that we will go to the higher highest rent that is provided by a low sorry I didn't interrupt you deputy I did I didn't I didn't enter you tell me if you're going to go lower then any more things you should ask me a question your remarks through the chair I'd ask the minister whether they're going to reduce them no you're out of order answer the question so you had your opportunity to make your comments I am responding to it you're determining the outcome of that I'm saying that there is a going there is a review that is underway proposals will be brought to administer in the second half of this year there is a varying discrepancy between as some local authorities I'm not determining the outcome of what that will be we know that some local authorities have a higher percentage some have a lower I'm not going to determine what that is until the outcome of the review is under under undertaking you you you you you