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With memories of the Ballymun tower blocks still fresh in the memory, are we doing enough to ensure current social housing doesn't suffer a similar fate? Ecohomes social housing includes Drum Housing Association's Way of the Sun development at Whitehill
The benefits of low-energy consumption in housing are well known. In light of ever increasing fuel costs and the spectre of carbon taxation, more and more householders are looking at home heating and other energy requirements that can be met by using a combination of energy conservation, along with renewable, low cost and even free energy sources.
Chris White of the Irish Council for Social Housing says it is this policy that is unacceptable, rather than duplication of funding sources: "House of Tomorrow funding is available to everyone apart from housing associations. If a House of Tomorrow grant is given, the Department of the Environment claws it back, requiring the housing association to pay its five per cent," he explains.
"Fair enough, but that's a different regime," says White. "The fundamental point is that the grants are available to everyone except housing associations. Housing associations should be encouraged to develop.
"Our perspective is one of fuel poverty. The vast majority of people we house are on a tiny income. 85 per cent earn less than €15,000 per year," he says. "The key question is, can SEI funding be considered the five per cent?"
According to White, current Irish policy favours owner-occupancy: "The government offers huge tax breaks for private housing and is putting loads more money into 'affordable' housing as opposed to social housing," he says. "From a housing needs perspective, the reason we have a crisis is because we have one of the lowest social housing compliments in the EU 25."
Nevertheless, the Department of the Environment's position is not an illogical one. The question is whether or not it's the right one.
At present, the department is clear that funding from the exchequer beyond the allotted 95 per cent is forbidden. Although White questions the department's definition of House of Tomorrow grants, which are partially obtained from EU structural funds, obviously both the department's core funding and the House of Tomorrow funding are both controlled from government coffers.
However, should an exception not be made for funding social housing which meets sustainability standards? After all, not only will this have a direct economic benefit for those living close to the fringes of society, but it would also mitigate the need to supply fuel allowances, thus saving government money in the long run, not to mention making a contribution to reducing Ireland's carbon output should supranational pollution taxation come about, as seems likely.
Anti-social housing
John Burke, manager of Tullamore Housing Association in County Offaly, explains that the Department of the Environment has told his organisation that if they are eligible for the House of Tomorrow grant, the same amount of funding will be reduced from the department's primary grant aid: "Private house—builders and so on—can apply for the grant, as can individual home owners, so we thought 'why leave out the voluntary sector?'," he says.
Tullamore Housing Association is a small but growing group helping to meet housing needs in a rural area: "At present, we have ten units for a social mix of residents," says Burke. Tullamore's application to SEI under the House of Tomorrow scheme was for the introduction of sustainability measures in a proposed development of a further fifteen homes.
"We're looking at geothermal heating," says Burke, "and in order to do that we [also] need good insulation and proper windows—there's no point in doing it if all the heat escapes.
Tullamore has therefore specified houses that go well above and beyond the minimal levels required in legislation: "Our grant [application] to SEI stipulates fabric insulation levels to surpass the elemental U values in building regulations, low e-glazing, insulated doors, a central ground source heat pump in a mini-district heating scheme and a gas condensing boiler."
This is a major move toward improved sustainability standards driven, once more, by economic factors: "At the moment we have storage heaters that have been up and running since 1993 and when anyone has moved out in the last while we've had to change the heaters [anyway], so we decided to look at alternative sources, along with the twenty per cent rise in heating costs in the last year," says Burke.
Burke is clear that if the department does withdraw a portion of its funding as a result of Tullamore obtaining House of Tomorrow funding the move would spell trouble for the organisation's planned development.
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