Increase in numbers on Westmeath housing list

The number of people on Westmeath County Council"s housing waiting list has increased by about 90 or 95 people in the past month. Speaking at the council"s annual budget meeting, Director of Services Declan Leonard said there were 780 on the housing list at present, which represented an increase.Of the 780 on the list, Mr Leonard said 480 were in need of houses, while the remainder were looking for rent supplement.The budget for Housing and Building for 2009 has increased by 1.9% compared to the 2008 figure, with €9.35m allocated for this section. While the overall budget for housing and building has increased, there have been some decreases, such as a drop of €200,000 in the maintenance and improvement of local authority housing units, a decrease of €100,000 in the administration of the housing rent and tenant purchase schemes, a decrease of €11,000 in support to the Housing Capital Programme and a decrease of €95,000 in housing grants.The biggest increase in housing was an increase of €400,000 in the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS).Labour Cllr Mick Dollard said the RAS was an area that the council needed to look at in terms of getting more income to offset the expenditure.Cllr Robert Troy (FF) asked if there were any plans to buy houses rather than build, given the current market prices, and said this would mean the council could house people quicker and would also be filling houses that would otherwise be lying idle.County Manager Danny McLoughlin said the council would be anxious not to just buy houses as by building them they could keep small contractors in business.Moate"s Cllr Tom Allen suggested that the council put a system in place where the council would inspect their houses every year and if they were damaged they would increase the rent for those particular tenants to offset the damages.