I am chairing the National Co-ordination Committee on Unfinished Housing Developments to oversee implementation of the Report of the Advisory Group on Unfinished Housing Developments, together with the Government’s response to the recommendations. My Department launched the Public Safety Initiative (PSI) in March 2011, which provided funding to address immediate public safety issues. The types of works that have been approved to date under the PSI include the fencing off of unsecured and hazardous areas, capping of pipes, installation of street lighting and other works to secure sites. Under the PSI, my Department has made allocations totalling €4.5m to local authorities from the funding made available. To date, €3.26m has been drawn down.
The Public Safety Initiative provides funding only in instances where a developer has abandoned the development. However, in circumstances where the developer is merely inactive the responsibility for the maintenance and resolution of issues surrounding the development are matters which need to be addressed between the developer and the relevant stakeholders, and my Department has no remit in this regard.
Budget 2014 contains a special provision, in the form of a targeted €10m Special Resolution Fund (SRF), to assist further in addressing the legacy of unfinished housing developments. The SRF has been proposed to encourage the resolution of the remaining tranche of unfinished developments identified in the National Housing Development Survey 2013 and, particularly, those developments not likely to be resolved in the normal way through solely developer/owner/funder action because of the presence of specific financial barriers. It is envisaged that the SRF should be particularly targeted to address the remaining unfinished developments with residents living in them and, in particular, any developments that local authorities identified, for the purposes of the Local Property Tax waiver, as in a seriously problematic condition.
My Department is currently evaluating SRF proposals from local authorities. I hope that the SRF will enable very substantial progress to be made in resolving as many of the remaining unfinished developments as possible.
