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Housing Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 October 2016

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

Ceisteanna (293, 294)

Fergus O'Dowd

Ceist:

293. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will require local authorities to produce an empty homes strategy with objectives; aims and actions needed to tackle the issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30587/16]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Fergus O'Dowd

Ceist:

294. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will introduce financial penalties for owners of properties which have been vacant for over two years or more in areas of high social housing demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30588/16]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

I propose to take Questions Nos. 293 and 294 together.

Action 5.1 of the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness undertakes to develop a National Vacant Housing Re-Use Strategy by early 2017. To this end, the Housing Agency, which has lead responsibility for co-ordinating the development of the Strategy, has established a working group to inform the Strategy, with senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and from the Housing Agency itself. Its first meeting was held on 30 September.

My Department and the Housing Agency are liaising with local authorities and with the Central Statistics Office in order to obtain a better understanding of the numbers, characteristics and reasons why homes are vacant. A number of local authorities have commenced, or are planning to commence, pilot programmes to identify vacant homes and bring them back into use; these pilot programmes will inform the Strategy. In addition, the Strategy will be informed by international best practice and experience, and research is being undertaken in this area.

There are a number of new schemes recently announced that will specifically target vacant properties. A new Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS) will assist local authorities or Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to bring vacant private houses into social housing use, providing homes for families on local authority waiting lists. The new Scheme will operate initially in Waterford and Carlow and my Department will work closely with other local authorities to roll it out around the country over the course of the next six months. I have secured €140m for the successful implementation of this Scheme over the next five years. This Scheme has significant potential and I am hopeful that it can bring at least 3,500 vacant houses back into productive use between now and 2021.

In addition, under a new “Buy and Renew” initiative, my Department will support local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to purchase private housing units in need of remediation, and renew them with the aim of making them available for social housing use.  An initial capital provision of €25 million will be available for this initiative in 2017.

Furthermore, in relation to under-utilised and vacant lands, the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015, enacted in July 2015, introduced a new measure, the vacant site levy, which is aimed at incentivising the development of vacant, under-utilised sites in urban areas. Under the Act, planning authorities are required to establish a register of vacant sites in their areas, beginning on 1 January 2017, and to issue annual notices to owners of vacant sites by 1 June 2018 in respect of vacant sites on the register on 1 January 2018. The levy will be applied by planning authorities, commencing on 1 January 2019 in respect of sites which were vacant and on the vacant site register during the year 2018 and will subsequently be applied on an annual basis thereafter, as long as a site remains on the vacant site register in the preceding year.

Planning authorities are empowered to apply an annual vacant site levy of 3% of the market value of vacant sites exceeding 0.5 hectares in area - with reduced or zero rates of levy applying in specific circumstances – which, in the planning authority’s opinion, were vacant or idle in the preceding year, in areas identified by the planning authority in its development plan or local area plan for residential or regeneration development. The 3% rate of vacant site levy is consistent with the rate applied to derelict sites under the Derelict Sites Act 1990 and is considered reasonable, without being over-punitive, for the purposes of incentivising the activation of such sites for residential or regeneration purposes. In this regard, it is also worth noting that all levies due on an individual site remain a charge on the land concerned until all outstanding levies due are paid. Accordingly, there will be a cumulative effect associated with not activating a site for development purposes for each year a site remains vacant or idle.

The proceeds of the levy raised on vacant sites will be used by planning authorities for the provision of housing and regeneration development in the local area in which vacant sites are located.  No more than 10% of the levy monies received by planning authorities may be used on their collection and administration costs.

Regarding urban regeneration in general, the Programme for a Partnership Government sets out the ambitious priority attached to it and incorporates a series of specific actions aimed at facilitating the regeneration of our urban centres . The Government’s Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan further reinforces its commitment to this area. In this context, a Working Group, comprising of senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and other relevant bodies, has been established to bring forward proposals for new urban regeneration measures by the end of the year. It is intended that the new measures will complement the existing regeneration programme under my Department’s Social Housing Capital Programme, as well as other social regeneration initiatives already under way.

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