Planners Cautiously Welcome Changes to Derelict Sites Levy

Planners in Wexford County Council say they would appreciate Revenue's help in bringing in a planned new tax on derelict properties.

Tanaiste Simon Harris is looking to replace the current derelict sites levy which he feels isn't being collected by local authorities.

He wants to give the reponsibility for this new charge to the tax collection service while councils would maintain the sites register.

The Senior Executive Officer for Planning at Wexford County Council is Tom Banville.

He thinks it could lead to a more effective system:

"There could be a lot more implications for somebody who is paying to pay a bill from Revenue than from the local authority.

"It certainly will be a bigger stick for property owners. This could have a good impact on the ultimate goal which is to bring these properties back into productive use."

Mr Baville would also like to see the Government focus more on vacant properties before they end up on the derelict sites register.

It's hoped the planned new tax would discourage homeowners from allowing their properties to fall into disrepair.

Tom says we could start this process a lot quicker:

"You can see that on streets where one property becomes vacant and a second becomes vacant which leads to the original property becoming derelict.

"It's a sliding scale here where the properties start to fall into a derelict state so I'd see vacancy as just as much of a challenge as dereliction and what can be done to address it".

Local planners also say a carrot approach may work better than the stick when it comes to dealing with dereliction.

Town Regeneration Officer Mick McCormack says he finds grants are more effective than threatening people with a tax:

"We've seen 635 grant applications, we've improved 478 to the value of 28 million euro so that's significant funding towards vacancy and dereliction from State aid.

"We've paid out on 221 to the value of 2.3 million so this has been very successful to date."

The above the shop scheme is also being hailed as a potential solution to the crisis.

Mr McCormack says this relatively new scheme could be a gamechanger:

"It has substantial support up to 140 thousand for an above the shop unit.

"That's still in its infancy but it's significant funding and we certainly welcome that in Wexford and hope it'll be as successful as the existing schemes."

That report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.