45% of units delivered across the Repair & Lease scheme nationally have been brought on stream in Waterford.
Meanwhile, 23 local authorities have delivered less than five homes under the scheme in the past four years. Eight Councils haven’t delivered a solitary unit.
Local Fine Gael Senator, John Cummins says Waterford’s performance is in stark contrast to figures nationwide.
Senator Cummins was speaking as The Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage met yesterday to discuss Urban Regeneration and derelict and vacant buildings.
The meeting, which was held in Leinster House, heard from Assistant Professor Orla Murphy of UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, and representatives of Dublin City Council, Waterford City and County Council, and Anois.
“Eight local authorities haven’t delivered a single unit at all. If we contrast that, to my own local authority in Waterford, they’ve delivered 122 units under the repair and lease scheme. That accounts for 45% of all units nationally. Why is Waterford City & County Council able to achieve these figures and do they feel that there is an ability to enhance the scheme even further?”, asked Senator Cummins.
Repair and Lease
Waterford Council Director of Housing Ivan Grimes and his colleague Paul Johnston also addressed the committee.
They too acknowledged the success of the local authority with the repair and lease scheme. Mr. Grimes said it was a necessity to reduce the number of vacant homes in the county. 13.6% of properties were vacant on the back of the 2016 national census.
“Since 2016, Waterford City & County Council has been actively trying to reduce the level of vacant homes across the city and county. This was in the context of 2016 census data, which indicated that the number of vacant residential units in Waterford was nearly 5,200 or 13.6% of the total residential stock. Obviously, that level of vacancy could not be sustained in the context of the increasing demand for both social and private housing.”
Mr. Grimes outlined that there is currently 320 units in the repair and lease scheme pipeline locally, while 140 have been returned to productive use since the scheme commenced. He noted that there is approximately 50 units in the buy and renew scheme.
“The schemes have delivered one and two bed units for us, particularly in urban areas, where the demand for that type of accommodation is most acute.”
Developments
A recent development was cited as evidence of the scheme’s success here in Waterford.
“Interest in repair and lease is very high here. We recently had approval from the Department for 71 units within a former convent building. The intention is that we will be targeting that primarily at elderly residents.”
The Waterford Council representative however admitted that the scheme has been more beneficial to those who own multiple properties as opposed to individual property owners.
“Initially, we were engaging with individual property owners. The scheme doesn’t really suit individual property owners. The scheme is more suitable for multi unit properties or multi unit owners.”
CPOs
It was highlighted that the compulsory purchase order process has only brought mixed success locally. However, this will not deter Waterford Council from making use of CPOs in future.
“We’ve taken enforcement action through compulsory purchase orders,” said Mr. Grimes.
“In our experience, the repair and lease and the buy and renew schemes have been particularly effective in Waterford. However, the use of CPOs has had more mixed results with legal delays and challenges in some instances. That said, we do intend to use CPO in the future.”
The success rate of compulsory purchase orders locally was estimated to be at a level of around 50%. It was conceded that it has been ‘hit and miss’.
“Up to date, we’ve undertaken CPOs on 49 vacant dwellings to return them back to use for housing purposes. There has been mixed results on that. I would imagine the success rate has probably been somewhere around 50%.”
