Mixed reaction to Minister’s vacant houses warning
HOUSING Minister Eoghan Murphy has warned those with a vacant second home that penalties are on the way if they don’t bring it back into use, but Wexford councillors are questioning where the money will come from if empty homes are ‘acquired’ to help ease the housing crisis.
And they say a better solulution would be to use local authority land banks to build new government-funded houses, which would stimulate the local economy and create dozens of affordable homes.
According to CSO figures, there are almost 5,000 unoccupied houses in the county, along with 1,174 unoccupied flats and 6,629 unoccupied holiday homes – altogether representing around 19 per cent of the housing stock.
Independent Cllr Ger Carthy said his personal opinion is that this situation ‘has manifested itself since 2008’.
‘If you fail to build houses you are going to have a problem,’ he said.
‘The council have plenty of land banks and building who are willing and ready to start. There should be less bureacracy and less red tape and these building projects should be started.
‘People are entitled to their own property and if any were CPO’d, the market value would have to be paid, so where is that money going to come from?’
‘The current minister is in la la land, the same as the previous one. If someone has worked all their life to have a second home in Ballymoney or Rosslare or anywhere, there’s no way the government should come along and ride roughshod over them. That’s the sort of thing that happens in a communist country,’ said Cllr Carthy.
Labour councillor and former Wexford Mayor Cllr George Lawlor said he had no problem with ‘CPO-ing houses that are vacant and unused’.
‘There are a small number around Wexford town that could not only assist with freeing up houses, but go towards the housing stock, and will take a blight of some of the houses that are boarded up,’ he said.
However, Cllr Lawlor said that incentives rather than fines were the way forward.
‘I think if a house is lying vacant for a long time, action should be taken.’
Holiday homes, however, should be exempted from the equation, he said.
Another Independent Cllr Davy Hynes said he welcomed the fact that something may at last be done, particularly in the area of derelict houses, but he said there was no money available to buy or renovate them.
‘They (the government) will have to put their money where there mouth is. The council certainly hasn’t got any and it’s a bit annoying when you hear about these big grandiose plans, but in the council you hear there’s no extra money,’ he told this newspaper.
‘It’s just one of those things that is thrown out. Years ago we were told that millions were going to be spent on new houses, but all we have is a handful. It never happened and this too is just pie in the sky.’
The housing department has announced a number of measures that are already under way to bring vacant homes into use, after government came under strong criticism last week over rising homeless numbers.
Minister Murphy said last week that his department are attempting to drill down into the number of vacant houses around the country.
hE SAID he is in talks with the Attorney General, the Minister of Finance, Paschal Donohoe, and the Revenue Commissioners to establish how quickly the new measures can be introduced to encourage homeowners to get their second property back on the market.
The minister said he hopes to introduce incentives for property owners with a second home lying idle, ‘but also a penalty scheme.. so we can get those properties back into use,’ he said.
Murphy also wants his department to be given increased Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) powers.
He said he was putting homeowners with a second vacant house ‘on notice that changes are coming.. penalties are coming’.
Among measures already being taken are the introduction of an Empty House Unit in the department in order to coordinate efforts to acquire vacant homes.
A vacant homes website has also been developed, which allows people to anonymously log possible vacant properties across the country.