Local councils top housing loan arrears list

A majority of the housing loans issued by local authorities in Westmeath are behind in their repayments, with loans issued by the county council in arrears of some €1.6m. A new report listed Athlone Town Council and Westmeath County Council as two of the local authorities with the highest rates of housing loans in arrears. The county council has 314 mortgages on its books, over 100 of which are in arrears by more than 12 months. Jim Dalton, of the county council’s finance section, stated that the local authority was working with the holders of these mortgages and was “doing everything we can to prevent a situation where a number of these houses have to be repossessed. That would not be in anyone’s best interest.” He stated that the local authority had embraced government policy dating from 2000/2001 which attempted to make home ownership feasible for people who were turned down for housing loans by financial institutions. Between 2002 and 2008, a total of 482 housing loans were issued by the county council. These consisted of affordable housing, shared ownership and standard annuity loans. Roughly a third of the people who took out these loans have refinanced with other institutions and, as a result, those loans are no longer on the council’s books. However 314 local authority mortgages remain, 104 of which are in arrears by more than 12 months. The total value of the arrears is €1.6m. Mr Dalton said roughly half of these council mortgage holders had seen their financial circumstances deteriorate significantly over the last three years. “We have to treat people humanely but, at the same time, the debts are due and we must do everything possible to ensure that the loans are repaid,” he said. Town Clerk John Walsh stated that a total of 58 housing loans were on Athlone Town Council’s books. In 2007 these loans were in arrears of €56,000, but this figure has since been reduced to €36,000. “This shows that we’ve made a serious improvement in the level of arrears that we have with these loans,” said Mr Walsh. He added that the Town Council no longer issues housing loans, with Westmeath County Council now dealing with such loans on a countywide basis. Last week an RTE News report on housing loan arrears stated that more than a third of housing loans issued by the local authorities were in arrears of more than one month. It stated that the level of arrears varied among the local authorities, but that the highest rates were on loans issued by: Athlone Town Council (65%), Monaghan County Council (64%) and Westmeath County Council (62%).