Parliamentary Question addressed to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the reason the household charge waiver for unfinished housing estates was calculated on the basis of the 2010 national housing development survey and not the more recent 2011 survey; if his attention has been drawn to the inconsistencies which are now apparent both within and between local authorities in terms of the condition of the estates qualifying for the waiver; his plans to change the methodology for applying the waiver for next year; and if he will make a statement on the matter?
 

Reply

As part of the process of preparing the National Housing Development Survey 2011, published by my Department in October 2011, local authorities provided details of all unfinished housing developments in their areas. These data, and not information collected in 2010, were used in the determination of household charge waiver eligibility.

Unfinished housing developments were divided into four categories as follows:

– Category one, where the development is still being actively completed by the developer, or where no serious public safety issues exist;
– Category two, where a receiver has been appointed;
– Category three, where a receiver has not been appointed and the developer is still in place but effectively inactive; and
– Category four, where the development has been effectively abandoned and is posing serious problems for residents

Other relevant factors for the purposes of the categorisation process include, inter alia:
– the state of completion of roads, footpaths, public lighting, piped water and sewerage facilities and open spaces or similar amenities within the development;
– the extent to which the development complies with the terms of applicable planning permission;
– the extent to which it complies with the provisions of the Building Control Acts 1990 and 2007;
– the provisions of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act 1964 as they pertain to dangerous places and dangerous structures within the meaning of the Act;
– the extent to which facilities within the development have been taken in charge by the local authority concerned; and,
– where there is an agreement regarding the maintenance of such facilities, the extent to which this agreement has been complied with.

This categorisation formed the basis for the list of those unfinished developments eligible for a waiver on the annual household charge.

Only households in developments in categories three and four are eligible for the waiver from payment of the household charge. This list of developments in which households are eligible for the waiver in 2012 is set out under the Local Government (Household Charge) Regulations 2012 and forms the complete and final list of such developments for this year. The Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 does not provide for an appeals facility in this regard. A revised list of estates will be prescribed for 2013 after which time the waiver for unfinished housing developments will end. Throughout this period it is anticipated that the numbers of categories 3 and 4 developments will decrease as my Department continues to work with local authorities and other stakeholders to resolve outstanding issues, including through the Public Safety Initiative.