Vacants plan needs €1bn injection
THE Government needs to pump at least €1bn into its latest vacant homes plan if it is to have an impact on the housing crisis, TV architect Hugh Wallace has said.
The Home of the Year judge said the €150m funding announced by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien last week falls far short of what is required, and much of it will be eaten up by fees and Vat.
While Mr Wallace said the intention of the scheme – which will support local authorities in acquiring and renovating vacant buildings for reuse or sale – is ‘great’, he said the allocated funding falls far short and ‘needs to be a billion’.
He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘€150m won’t go anywhere. Think about it – 25% of that will go on fees. 13.5% will go on building costs [through Vat].’
Mr Wallace added: ‘In fairness to the councils, they know the property is there.
‘Their problem is actually funding and technical issues to do with building control and building bylaws on fire, [obtaining a] Disability Access Certificate and bringing a building up to a standard in terms of energy rating.
‘Because in a lot of the old buildings, if they’re listed, it comes into doubt as to whether you can or can’t [meet those requirements],’ he said.
Mr Wallace previously told the MoS that vacant buildings should have regulations completely separate from those for new-builds.
He argues individual buyers should be exempt from paying VAT when buying a home or building materials for renovations.
Mr Wallace stressed fire safety requirements were written with new-builds in mind, and it is therefore difficult to ‘shoehorn’ them into vacant buildings without significant extra cost.
He also said stipulations on wheelchair accessibility ‘has implications on widths of staircase, turning circles, and a whole plethora of regulations’, and that it is ‘problematic’ getting an energy rating for ‘old stone walls… that works for SEAI grants’.