One third of councils didn’t raise any cash from levies on derelict sites

MORE than one-in-three councils failed to raise a single cent in derelict site levies the year before the pandemic hit, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Vacant site levies were introduced to prevent landowners from hoarding land that could be developed for much-needed housing.

It was originally hoped the threat of the levy would kickstart development in many parts of the country and help to tackle the chronic shortage of housing supply.

Owners of land listed on vacant site registers on January

Hoped the levy would release 18,000 sites

1, 2018, were liable to pay a levy of 3% of its market value, rising to 7% in 2019. It was hoped the levy would release up to 18,000 sites across the country for development.

However, figures – supplied by Junior Housing Minister Peter Burke in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould – indicate yet another key Government housing initiative is not being implemented by up to half of the country’s local authorities.

Mr Burke confirmed that 12 councils, including the vast local authority area of Fingal across north Dublin, did not impose a single vacant site levy. The others are Cavan, Clare, Donegal, Galway County, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo and Waterford.

And four more county councils imposed levies of less than €10,000. These include

Kilkenny (€5,250), Offaly (€3,335), Louth (€2,235) and Mayo (€1,000).

Mr Burke revealed the highest vacant site levy, €629,700, was raised by Cork City Council, followed by Dublin City Council (€444,029) and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (€201,108).

The affluent South Dublin local authority imposed a minuscule levy of €45,000, significantly less than the €103,410 and €101,550 raised by Wexford and Westmeath councils respectively.

Separate figures obtained by Mr Gould reveal the amount of revenue owed to the Exchequer under the levy has almost quadrupled in a year.

A report by the Oireachtas Parliamentary Budget Office last year showed payments of €2.3m due under the levy were outstanding. Responding to Mr Gould’s query on outstanding levy amounts due on derelict sites by local authorities in 2019, Mr Burke confirmed that this had risen to €8,163,159.

The highest amount (€2,149,309) is owed to Dublin City Council, followed by Cork City Council (€1,588,681).

Westmeath Council is owed €1,284,445, while Fingal is due just €7,500. Dún LaoghaireRathdown and South Dublin councils were owed €528,194 and €175,315 respectively.

Social Democrats housing spokesman Cian O’Callaghan said: ‘Serious questions have to be asked of our councils.’

He told the MoS: ‘It looks as though this is yet another policy more honoured in the breach than the observance.

‘There appears to be a case where, while a small number of councils have done fantastic work, the lack of enforcement compromises objectives.’

He called on Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien ‘to impose accountability’ on local authorities who fail to impose the site levies. ‘The minister cannot simply stand back and wave at his department all of the time. He needs to impose accountability and objectives.’

Local Authority progress reports have indicated that some are experiencing administrative difficulties in implementing the legislation underpinning the tax. Several blamed resource and staffing shortages in their planning departments for delays in implementing the legislation.