Denis Naughten
Ceist:9. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the steps he is taking to encourage the use of vacant housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17379/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 23 July 2020
Ceisteanna (9, 10)
Denis Naughten
Ceist:10. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the steps he is taking to encourage the use of vacant housing in villages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17378/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (10 píosaí cainte)
There is a substantial number of vacant houses right across the country. We have a housing crisis and we have to look at building as many houses as possible but we have 1.75 million existing houses and we must do our utmost to ensure that as many of those homes are occupied as possible. The number of those vacant at any one time varies at present between 50,000 and 180,000 depending on the source. Every effort must be taken to ensure that we maximise the occupancy of existing housing.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 10 together.
A range of measures to assist in meeting Ireland's housing needs by ensuring that our existing housing stock is used to the greatest extent possible were set out in pillar 5 of Rebuilding Ireland. An overarching action within that pillar was the commitment to develop a national vacant homes reuse strategy. This strategy was published by my Department in July 2018 and strives to provide a targeted, effective and co-ordinated approach to identifying and tackling vacancy across the country. It draws together all of the strands of ongoing work into this document.
Local authorities have been and continue to be encouraged to utilise all available supports and develop new approaches to ensuring that existing housing stock across the country is utilised to the fullest capacity. This has resulted in the development of innovative responses to dealing with vacancy, such as the website vacanthomes.ie developed by Mayo County Council in July 2017 on behalf of the local government sector. This site acts as a central portal for individuals to log possible vacant homes and has proven useful in supplementing the country-wide analysis on vacancy and in mobilising local communities to assist local authorities in developing and implementing a targeted approach. Some 4,220 properties have been registered to date. The website provides useful information for property owners on how to bring their vacant properties back into use and available financial supports.
The supports available to bring vacant stock back into use include a number of schemes developed by my Department to incentivise reactivating suitable dwellings into livable housing stock. In that regard, at the end of 2019 a total of 1,540 applications for the repair and leasing scheme had been received from property owners. Some 165 of those homes have been brought back into use and were tenanted. Since the introduction of the buy and renew scheme, it has helped local authorities to purchase 529 vacant properties to accommodate households seeking social support. In January 2017, my Department established a revolving acquisitions fund of €70 million managed by the Housing Agency, which has facilitated 840 properties being made available to approved housing bodies to accommodate households seeking social housing supports. Some 51 additional properties are currently in the process of being secured. The Housing Agency has also assisted local authorities in acquiring a further 468 vacant properties from financial institutions for social housing purposes, with a further 211 currently in the process of being secured as social housing. Therefore, in addition to the almost 700 properties brought back into use to date under the buy and renew and repair and lease schemes, more than 1,500 other vacant properties held by financial institutions have been secured or are currently in the process of being secured for social housing.
Tackling vacancy will continue to be the focus of targeted attention by my Department through the ongoing implementation of measures set out in the national vacant housing reuse strategy. That is an overarching roadmap and focal point for the co-ordination and implementation of initiatives right across government to ensure we are utilising our existing housing stock to the fullest extent possible. To that end, it facilitates actions to return as many recoverable vacant properties back into viable use as possible, increasing supply of sustainable housing while also revitalising the vibrancy of our local communities.
I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I accept that this is a complex area and yes, there are initiatives such as the repair and lease scheme, the buy and renew scheme and the acquisitions fund. The difficulty is that there are blockages within the system at present. One of them is the fair deal, or nursing home support scheme. There are 9,000 vacant houses across the country where older people are in long-term care. If those older people lease out their home, they are penalised three times. The capital value of the house is taken into account, the rental income is taken into account, and money going through the bank account is considered as capital on deposit. Will the Minister of State give me an assurance that the anomaly in respect of the fair deal scheme will be resolved to ensure that some of these houses are made available for these schemes?
It is very clear regarding vacant houses that a blend or suite of measures is needed to ensure that we bring housing back into use. In the pilot project that was undertaken by the Department in connection with six local authorities, they found a vacancy rate of around 2.9%. That required two inspections over a six-month period. At times this can be put across as though there is a huge amount of low-hanging fruit but sometimes we will find that vacant homes are in difficult locations in which demand is not as strong for social housing.
On the powers that are available to local authorities, Waterford City and County Council and Louth County Council have been pioneers in using compulsory purchase orders to replenish vacant housing. We also have vacant housing officer roles which have been funded and put into the local authority system. In connection with Deputy Naughten's specific point, it is something we can examine and I will raise it within the Department.
Another bottleneck in availing of these schemes is probate. People in County Roscommon and the adjoining county of Galway, for example, have to wait an average of three and a half months for a probate application to be processed. If one is unfortunate enough to live in County Kilkenny, the process can take four and a half months. In Cork city it is taking two and a half months. In Waterford, which the Minister of State has already mentioned, it takes three and a half months to process a probate application. Clearly this is another impediment to the release of housing stock back onto the market. Absolutely there are complex legal processes in order for the application to be lodged with the probate office in the first place. If the e-probate system was rolled out across the country it would deal with much of the initial administrative problems and allow for these to be processed quickly. When are we going to see the e-probate system rolled out across the country?
That is an area for which my Department does not have responsibility but I take the Deputy's point, which is very well made. It is an issue that has to be tackled. Myself and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will raise that with the Department. The Deputy also alluded to that measure. There are a number of measures that need to be brought together as a blend to try to get housing stock back in use. No one wants vacant housing units. We will do all we can to ensure we achieve that. Both measures Deputy Naughten has raised are reasonable suggestions that we can work on.
That is great. I have two more measures for the Minister of State as well. The first is that his Department is spending approximately €31,000 through the local infrastructure housing activation fund and the serviced sites fund in releasing sites for housing development, mainly across the urban centres, the eastern part of the country and in our cities.
At the same time, we have a substantial number of vacant houses in many rural villages and towns. The local authorities are not interested in the context of the various schemes because there is not a demand in those locations for local authority housing. However, there are many families here in Dublin or in other cities who would relocate, particularly now that they can work remotely. I ask that we introduce a grant scheme for families whereby they could get half the amount to which I refer, up to €15,000, which would allow them to relocate from the cities into some of the villages and bring life back into those where the necessary infrastructure is already in place.
The local infrastructure housing activation fund was introduced by the previous Government. It is a key tool in the context of activating sites and is linked to the national planning framework, which is important in keeping our towns and villages vibrant.
Sometimes the issue of vacant housing can be taken out of proportion. Looking at the vacant homes register, in Roscommon in the Deputy's constituency, 72 properties are listed. While I acknowledge that we want to work to secure those properties and make them the subject of viable tenancies, we can also take the Deputy's suggestions on board and meet him to discuss them if he so wishes. It is important that we take a collaborative approach to housing. Many measures are used in conjunction with each other in order to try to tackle this issue. There is no silver bullet. When one looks at the pilot study that was carried out and the information available on vacanthomes.ie - that information is independently held and is obtained, from the ground up, in constituencies - sometimes the perception is that this is a greater problem than is actually the case.
There are multiples of those 72 properties in Roscommon alone. I could bring the Minster of State to locations adjoining our constituency in Monksland where there is huge housing demand and where houses are vacant for one reason or another. If we are going to encourage families to relocate to some of these communities, we must look at the tax credit system currently in place. It needs to be modernised and updated.
Finally, across my constituency there are problems with raw sewage running down the main streets of villages, in the likes of Kilconnell and Caltra in east Galway and locations in County Roscommon. We must invest in our water and wastewater infrastructure, particularly in villages, in order that we might provide suitable accommodation for families.
I take on board the Deputy's concerns about Irish Water. I would be at pains to point out, however, that the Department has invested significant funding in a co-ordinated approach to try to unlock vacant properties. I refer to measures to deal with the ghost estates we were left with after the crash and the amount of money that was invested in unlocking unfinished estates. The latter ensured that houses were completed and are now the subject of secure tenancies. We have also encouraged and prepared vacant housing plans with local authorities and facilitated the appointment of vacant home officers to drive that. This needs to be driven at a local level where the knowledge lies. There is also our repair-and-lease scheme and the Housing Agency acquisition fund. I mentioned Waterford and Louth, where local authorities have used the compulsory purchase order process to key effect. This is a co-ordinated approach. We need to be very careful how we manage it, and we must continue to bring homes back to the point where they can be the subject of secure tenancies.