‘CPOs needed for derelict houses’
THE Council is standing by its preferred method of buying vacant houses by agreement, despite repeated calls to use Compulsory Purchase Orders.
Councillor Declan Bree believes they should use CPOs to buy long term vacant homes to solve the housing crisis.
“I highlighted this issue over 12 months ago and unfortunately to date no serious action has been taken to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire long term vacant dwellings in Sligo,” he told the meeting.
“The market value has to be paid to the owners of property being bought by way of C.P.O. so we are not talking about seizing the dwellings. These houses are vacant, not for sale, and in many cases, they are detracting from the neighbourhood. In this context the use of compulsory purchase powers may actually encourage owners of long-term vacant properties to either put them up for sale or put them back into use,” he said.
The most recent census figures show that there are 4,727 vacant houses in county Sligo - excluding holiday homes.
“Clearly this is wrong and unacceptable at a time when we have a housing crisis. I appreciate that not all of those dwellings would be suitable for social housing or may not be located in areas where there is a high demand,” said Cllr Bree.
He believes many of them would be suitable for social housing and the Council should be using its compulsory powers to buy them.
He told the Executive that the Department advocates C.P.O.’s, claiming they can deliver social housing “more speedily... and at a much lower cost than new builds”. “Other councils in the country are successfully using compulsory purchase orders to buy houses so as to reduce the number of people on housing waiting lists and I believe Sligo needs to do likewise,” he said.
Senior Executive Officer Joe Murphy told
Cllr Bree that the Council bought sixteen houses in 2018, at least two of which were long term vacant.
He said it was the Council’s preference to buy houses by agreement, “as this process avoids the challenges and costs to what can be a lengthy CPO process. It is also the best use of scarce resources,” said Mr Murphy.
“I’m disappointed because the Department says that CPOs are more cost effective than going out and doing new builds,” replied Cllr Bree.
“All of us have witnessed the amount of houses lying vacant. It’s absolutely immoral. The public are aware of all these houses lying vacant. I would make a plea to the Executive to use CPOs to purchase houses for the local authority housing stock,” he said.
Council Chief Executive Ciarán Hayes said it was not for him to comment on the morality of the property owners, “that’s for them.”
“How we deploy resources is a matter (for us) - I’m satisfied that the manner we have used to acquire properties has been productive and an efficient use of our resources.
“I’m aware of the Department’s view on this but obviously it’s a decision that I have to make here locally, given our own circumstances,” he told members.