Peter Burke
Ceist:757. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will provide details on the vacant tax levy for a person (details supplied). [56794/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 17 January 2024
Ceisteanna (757)
Freagraí scríofa
The Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015 (the Act) introduced a new measure, the vacant site levy, which was 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 functional areas, beginning on 1 January 2017. Planning authorities were required to issue notices to owners of vacant sites by 1 November 2018 in respect of vacant sites on their respective registers on 1 January 2018, indicating that the levy will apply to those sites on 1 January 2019. Similar arrangements applied in respect of vacant sites listed on local authority registers in subsequent years.
The primary objective of the levy is to act as a mechanism to incentivise the development of vacant and underutilised sites in urban areas for both the provision of housing and the development and renewal of land, thereby facilitating the most efficient use of such land and sites and enabling them to be brought into beneficial use rather than allowing them to remain dormant and undeveloped.
The implementation of the vacant site levy provisions is a matter for the local authority concerned. However, the Act provides that the planning authority will notify owners of vacant sites at various stages throughout the process, including when the planning authority intends to enter the vacant site on the register, when it has been entered on the register and when the levy falls due for payment. Owners of vacant sites may make submissions to the planning authority in respect of their sites at various stages in the process. In addition there are also a number of appeals provisions in the Act, including an appeal by the registered owner against the entry of a site on the register, an appeal of market value determination of a site and appeal against demand for payment of the levy contained in the Act.
Section 19 of the Act provides that where vacant site levy for a year is due and owing, the amount of the levy shall remain a charge on the land concerned until it is paid. The amount of levy owed by a person in respect of vacant sites that have been listed on a vacant site register may be obtained from the local authority in whose functional area the sites are located.