The changes will increase rents for all tenants in DCC social housing, but are projected to affect households with higher incomes and multiple earners the most.<\/p>\n
The rate of increase will depend on household size and income. Under the new model, a principal earner in a single occupant household earning a net income of \u20ac244 a week can expect their weekly rent to rise 10pc, from \u20ac31.80 to \u20ac34.92.<\/p>\n
For a household with one principal earner on \u20ac961 a week and two adult subsidiary earners with a collective income of \u20ac900 a week, their weekly rent would increase 35pc from \u20ac181 to \u20ac244.<\/p>\n
With more subsidiary earners in the equation, the increase could climb well beyond 50pc.<\/p>\n
At the moment, rents are charged at 15pc of the principal earner\u2019s salary, with the first \u20ac32 a week exempt from this calculation, and subsidiary earners are charged in the same way up to a maximum of \u20ac21 a week.<\/p>\n
Up to four subsidiary earners can be included in the calculation, but the fifth and onwards don\u2019t count towards the rental figure. For self-employed tenants like taxi drivers and tradespeople, the council currently assumes that they earn either \u20ac500 or \u20ac560 a week.<\/p>\n
These figures are all set to increase, with the primary earner now set for an 18pc rate on everything exceeding the first \u20ac50 a week. Subsidiary earners will also now contribute up to \u20ac40 a week, with the four-person cap lifted.<\/p>\n
Councillors voted tonight by 31 to 30 to pass its \u20ac1.7bn budget as a protest was held outside Dublin City Hall by Sinn F\u00e9in, the Social Democrats, tenants\u2019 union CATU and others, over the rent increases.<\/p>\n
People Before Profit Solidarity group leader, councillor Conor Reddy had proposed an amendment to the budget which would introduce an almost 15pc increase in commercial rates for large rate-payers instead of increasing rents for council tenants. However, the amendment was defeated.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Daith\u00ed Doolan said the increases were \u201chitting working families front and centre\u201d.<\/p>\n
“We need to remember folks why is there going to be a rent increase,\u201d he said. \u201cLast month, the Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael government were backslapping each other with a historic budget surplus of over \u20ac9bn.<\/p>\n
“They couldn\u2019t spend the money if they tried. And they\u2019re denying us funding for this city. They\u2019re starving this city of essential funding for housing maintenance, repairs, regeneration and redevelopment of our working class estates.\u201d<\/p>\n
DCC social housing resident Pauline McAdams said it was unfair to \u201cpenalise tenants\u201d for the council\u2019s failure to maintain their housing stock.<\/p>\n
“Who\u2019s going to guarantee that these repairs are going to be done,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd how are people going to pay these rents when they put them up,\u201d adding that the people affected by the changes come from low-income families.<\/p>\n
Fianna F\u00e1il, Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens have 31 seats on Dublin City Council, shy of an overall majority. Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael are reliant on Labour and Green support.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of the vote, Green Party councillor Michael Pidgeon said he agreed that conditions in council complexes were \u201cnot acceptable\u201d, and that\u2019s why the budget for maintenance needed to increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cDublin City Council, along with the other Dublin councils, really charge, with good intentions, some of the lowest social housing rents in the country,\u201d he said, adding that the system was \u201cbizarre and regressive\u201d because \u201cricher households pay less than poorer ones\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Pidgeon said that the ultimate result of the current system was that maintenance budgets were too low.<\/p>\n
He said it was not the responsibility of Government to fund maintenance budgets for local authorities, and that councils should set rents at an appropriate level to cover it.<\/p>\n
“There is a clear, direct line between the low rents we charge and the low, crappy levels of maintenance we provide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A People Before Profit amendment that would have increased commercial rates to large rate-payers instead of increasing rents was narrowly defeated by the chamber, by a margin of 31 against and 28 in favour, with one abstention.<\/p>\n
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The changes will increase rents for all tenants in DCC social housing, but are projected to affect households…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,898,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-157961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-latest-news-ticker","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}