5,000 VACANT HOMES
Sinn Féin Councillor Chris MacManus has described as ‘ appalling’ the news that the vacancy rate for houses across County Sligo stands at over 20%.
He says: “The Government needs to get their head around this. The vacancy rate of houses and apartments lying empty in County Sligo is three times that of Dublin.
“That is scandalous when we are in the midst of a serious housing crisis. Too many families cannot get on the property ladder, cannot afford private rented accommodation or access social housing yet thousands of houses in County Sligo are lying vacant.
The figures were contained in 2016 Census data recently released by the CSO.
Councillor MacManus adds: “We have been told repeatedly by Government that the central cause of this housing crisis is an under supply of housing, particularly private housing.
“And yet the recent CSO figures show that there are 259,562 vacant houses across the state.
“Here in County Sligo there are 5,065 houses out a total of 33,165 lying empty. This figure does not include holiday homes. Only Donegal, Leitrim and Mayo fare worse throughout the state.
“We have hundreds of families locally seeking social housing. Many others can barely pay rent in the private rental sector.
“As a recent report from Focus Ireland clearly showed, Government solutions such as RAS and HAP do not reflect the realities of the rental market.
“In 2014, the Fine Gael led Government stated that every household would have access to secure, quality housing.
“We are a long way from that. New and innovative thinking is needed to ensure that every citizen secures their basic right to housing.
He suggests a tax on vacant homes be implemented to help deal with the crisis: “We need to have a vacant homes tax for those people who are willfully and speculatively sitting on empty homes.
“Such a tax should be accompanied by a range of incentives to assist vacant home owners to bring their units back into social and affordable use.
“Local authorities should be tasked with compiling a vacant home register and with actively engaging with owners of vacant homes to encourage them to bring their properties back into use.
“Engaging with property owners and maintaining a vacant homes register will have the double effect of promoting government schemes already rolled out for this purpose such as the ‘ Buy & Renew’ and the ‘ Repair & Lease’ and of identifying vacant properties that would be exempt from such a tax due to probate issues or being in the Fair Deal scheme.
“If Local Authorities need more staff to undertake this work then it should be provided as a matter of urgency.”
Cllr. MacManus concludes: “However, it is disappointing that a year into the Government housing action plan we have yet to see its Vacant Homes Strategy.
“It is simply not acceptable when so many families are in severe housing need.”