Tenants group concerned council plan will lead to gentrification

Dublin City Council plans to sell off its stock of 16,500 dwellings have not been properly thought through and will cause the areas to be "yuppified", an organisation representing local authority tenants has said.

Tenants First, a group founded in January when plans to make the dwellings available for sale were first mooted, has raised concerns about the long-term impact of the Council's plans.

Dublin city manager Mr John Fitzgerald confirmed last month that a legal solution had been found to get around an anomaly which prevented local authority tenants from buying their homes.

Cllr Mick Rafferty, spokesman for Tenants First, said there was a concern that this would "inevitably lead to a huge reduction in the public housing stock.

There was also a concern, he said, that once tenants had bought their dwellings they may sell them on at huge profit.

This would inevitably lead to an influx of people in higher income brackets and the areas would become "yuppified" , he said.

Mr Brendan Kenny, assistant city manager at the Council, acknowledges this may happen, as "one of the negative aspects of progress".

At the weekend the Minister of State for Housing, Mr Noel Ahern, announced plans to redevelop some of the most deprived flats complexes in the city through public private partnership. This would involve the State giving land around these estates to developers, who would refurbish and redevelop them, though with far higher housing density.