Still node sign of any funding for rural housing settlements

Meath County Council has not received any funding from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for the development of 50 rural nodes throughout the county, a Fianna Fail councillor has been told.

Rural nodes comprise a defined network of small, generally unserviced settlements in the county which provide an alternative to one-off housing in the open countryside. They were formerly known as graigs but this has been changed to nodes in the newest county development plan.

Cllr Damien O’Reilly had asked about infrastructural funding at a meeting of the county council. Officials said that the council had not received funding for nodes development. “Whilst there is a Government fund called the ‘Serviced Sites Fund’, this fund seeks to enable the delivery of affordable housing in urban areas and does not relate to the provision of infrastructure on sites in the rural area.

The Serviced Sites Fund has been replaced recently by the Affordable Housing Fund which is for settlements with a population greater than 1,500 people”, they said.

The officials also stated that national policy noted that the Government intends developing a programme for new homes in small towns and villages, with local authorities, public infrastructure agencies such as Irish Water and local communities to provide serviced sites with appropriate infrastructure to attract people to build their own homes and live in small towns and villages.

It is expected that there will be further details provided on this in the form of updated sustainable rural housing guidelines and/or this will be addressed as part of the expansion of a new Croi Cónaithe fund. To date, the Croi Cónaithe fund is focused on the delivery of apartments in cities but it is expected that this will be expanded upon. “As such, Meath County Council is awaiting announcements from Government in relation to new funding and new sustainable rural housing guidelines.