Greater Rent Certainty Needed Says Crowe

Dublin South West representative Seán Crowe TD has called on Environment  Minister  Alan Kelly to  deliver on his long awaited promise to introduce rent regulation and begin to ease the the crisis in housing and homelessness. Crowe said that leaks and rumours abound in the media that  Minister Alan Kelly is finally proposing to bring his proposals on the issue to Cabinet on Tuesday.

Deputy Sean Crowe said

“Minister Alan Kelly has been promising the introduction of Rent Certainty since the Labour Party conference in February claiming this was his number one priority. Speaking then Minister Kelly said: ‘What we’re looking at is a process whereby people can have some certainty as regards rent into the future while [housing] supply is being dealt with.’

“Leaks and rumours suggest that it may go to Cabinet next week. The Minister said that he was committed to ‘entering the market’ to change this but Finance Minister Michael Noonan and his Fine Gael colleagues oppose this intervention claiming that interference in the market, is not something we should do.

“Given these diametrically opposed positions it is little wonder that it took so long to agree a position. The Minister for the Environment has also accused those of his Fine Gael colleagues who are briefing against rent certainty as ‘anonymous cowards’.

“But the difficulties in the Cabinet is nothing compared to the instability and pressure inflicted by the government on families who cannot afford to pay  increasing rents being demanded by landlords. The Government’s refusal to deal with the housing crisis is causing widespread hardship and homelessness  for  families.

“Since it took office, rents have increased by 35%. 90% of these cases are above rent supplement limits. Families simply cannot afford them and are being forced from their homes and into limited emergency accommodation.

“There are now 1,500 children living in homeless accommodation in the Dublin area.

“The response of the Government has been incoherent, incohesive and chaotic with Ministers briefing against each other instead of dealing with the growing housing crisis.

“We need rent certainty and it needs to be delivered now as the crisis in the rental sector is impacting on homelessness every day.

“Sinn Féin, like so many other organisations, has continually highlighted the dysfunctional nature of our rental system. One of th many critical failings, and a failing that has worsened considerably during the lifetime of this Government, centres on a clear lack of affordability.

“Minister Kelly knows that rents have risen rapidly with increases of over 30% in Dublin and 20% nationally in the three years from July 2012 – July 2015. These rent increases have pushed more individuals, couples, families and children into homelessness. It is also widened the gap between the rates of rent supplement and the open rental market.

“It has literally trapped those in homelessness with the options for moving on non-existent and a weekly basis pushing thousands of households to or to the very verge of homelessness.

“Vocal opponents of rent certainty have highlighted the lack of housing supply as key issue to rising rents and it is true that supply of appropriate, affordable and quality supply is extremely important but supply alone will not solve all the problems of rapidly rising rents or that it will automatically reduce the number of homeless households.

“Rent certainty is key  part of the solution, but not the solution on its own. However, without rent certainty there can be no solution to the emergency that is being caused by a broken rental system.

“Limiting rent increases to once every two years only delays the problem and does not address the fact many tenants will have their rent increased before these rules are in place. It also does nothing to address the fact that rents have already risen by a whopping  35% over a short period

“We urgently need a package of rent control measures which will set the standard rates for size and location of accommodation. This will enable existing tenants through their right to review rent while forcing landlords to set fair and reasonable rents on new leases.

“We also need to limit rent changes to the rate of inflation and the consumer price index to ensure their overall affordability and stability into the future.”