I am the director of services at Waterford City and County Council and a member of the City and County Management Association, CCMA, committee on housing, building and land use. I am accompanied by my colleague, Mr. Gordon Daly, director of services at Limerick City and County Council. On behalf of the CCMA, I thank the committee for its invitation and look forward to assisting it in discussing dereliction and vacancy.
The CCMA welcomes the inclusion of addressing dereliction and vacancy under Housing for All, the vacant homes action plan and town centre first and strongly endorses the introduction of policies and strategies such as Croí Cónaithe, call 3 of the URDF, the CPO activation, repair and lease scheme, the vacancy survey and revisions to planning legislation, exemptions to which were mentioned by Ms Timmons. Vacant home officers, town centre first teams and regeneration officers are now in place in most local authorities and recruitment is advancing where the posts have not been filled. The recent census 2022 showed a reduction in the number of vacant homes and apartments by 20,000 since 2016, and while this is to be welcomed, there is a significant opportunity for the return of many more of these properties as we all try to address a housing supply shortage coupled with demands arising from the largest humanitarian crisis for generations. My intention is to highlight the actions of our local authorities, Waterford City and County Council and Limerick City and County Council, as demonstrators of work ongoing throughout the local authority sector.
With the introduction of national policies and frameworks such as the national planning framework, Housing for All, Our Rural Future and town centre first, local authorities have developed a strategic, whole-of-authority approach to dealing with dereliction and vacancy. Heretofore, derelict properties were typically dealt with as part of the work of one unit, with varying degrees of success. In line with the national planning framework’s national strategic objectives for compact growth, which have been listed in our circulated opening statement, and utilising opportunities such as the roll-out of URDF and rural regeneration and development, RRDF, funding, local authorities now have strategic direction, underpinned by funding, to address dereliction and vacancy.
As an example of this, Waterford council was successfully awarded more than €28 million in funding under URDF call 2 for specifically addressing derelict and vacant properties in the centre of Waterford city. The refurbishment, and return to productive uses such as cultural, community, residential, and business, demonstrate the on-the-ground benefits of addressing dereliction and vacancy as these projects come to fruition. We also received more than €5 million for Cappoquin under the RRDF and, similarly, this fund is successfully delivering regeneration projects to this rural town in west Waterford. Part of this project includes the compulsory acquisition of derelict and vacant properties. These are just some examples of the type of interventions being replicated throughout the local authority sector.
In line with pathway 4 of Housing for All, local authorities are making increasing progress on addressing vacancy and dereliction using compulsory acquisition powers under the Derelict Sites Act 1990. In some instances, the use of CPOs has had mixed results to date, with legal delays and challenges impeding progress on some initiatives for some local authorities. Local authorities continue to use the CPO process, however, and in particular to target more complex vacant properties either where they have been unable to identify the property owner or where the owner refuses to co-operate in bringing the property back into active use.
In addition, some compulsorily acquired properties are residential properties needing varying degrees of renovation to be brought back into use by new owners. The expansion of the Croí Cónaithe towns fund vacant property refurbishment grant, which increases the funding by €20,000 for both vacant and derelict buildings, has been an especially welcome development in this regard to help drive homeowner interest in purchasing vacant and derelict properties. Local authorities have indicated strong interest in this area and the recent changes appear to have stimulated increased activity in it.
To ensure a strategic approach is in place to address dereliction and vacancy, as referenced earlier, most local authorities are now developing a whole-of-authority approach to this issue. In Waterford, we have established a steering committee, headed by me as director of service for planning and property management. Other members include our housing team, comprising our director of services, our vacant homes officers and our head of capital delivery; our rural development town regeneration officer; planning officials comprising the senior planner and a dedicated senior executive planner assigned solely to dereliction and vacancy; our community senior executive officer; and our head of property management. This approach ensures there is a consistent and targeted approach to addressing vacancy and dereliction as part of the wider city, town, and village regeneration projects. We have also developed a whole-of-authority information sheet that identifies the several types of grants and supports available to address derelict and vacant properties, and we provide a support service for those interested in availing of such supports. I have attached a copy of this in our submission documentation.
Vacancy and dereliction have an impact on the commercial life of our rural towns and villages, and while we absolutely require more housing and a variety of options for potential homeowners and renters, we cannot allow every property to be used for residential use. The viability of main streets in our towns and villages requires some thought and is being addressed in the context of the town centre first plans. There needs to be a connection between dereliction and vacancy and how local authorities, through their business support units or local enterprise offices, LEOs, can help from a commercial business perspective. In Waterford, we successfully received more than €1.4 million for a digital transformation hub in Dungarvan and, in accordance with town centre first and digital first policies, we have acquired three town centre derelict and vacant properties in which to house this new digital transformation hub.
To continue this level of positive intervention, the CCMA welcomes the developments made in respect of dereliction and vacancy and initiated by central government with supports through the URDF, the RRDF, the town and village renewal scheme, grant assistance, funding of town centre first plans and the creation of vacant homes officer and town regeneration officer positions.
However, this area of work can be slow and is very resource intensive and with the volume of additional work in recent months increasing substantially for local authorities, together with the impending announcements regarding the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, call 3, there is a need for further resourcing of these efforts to ensure sustained momentum and early delivery of these positive outcomes.
While the sector faces a range of challenges including the current market demands regarding supply of labour and materials and significantly increased construction costs, the CCMA is confident there is considerable work under way by each local authority and its various stakeholders to achieve the targets in Housing for All for local authorities to acquire at least 2,500 vacant units by 2026 and present them to the market for sale. To highlight this, I refer to the briefing note prepared by my colleague, Mr. Gordon Daly, that demonstrates how compulsory acquisition powers have been used by Limerick City and County Council to activate vacant property. Since 2019, that council has published 250 notices to compulsorily acquire derelict and vacant buildings and to date has generated €7 million in the sale of these properties to new owners to bring back into productive use. Limerick City and County Council is a sectoral leader on addressing dereliction and vacancy and is providing valuable experience to other local authorities as they are at the earlier stages of their journey.
I thank the Chairman. We welcome any questions committee members might have.