COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

MOTION NO. 12

MOTION: Councillor M. Johansson

“That this committee expresses its solidarity with housing activists engaged in direct action such as the occupation of vacant buildings to highlight the housing crisis. This committee supports the demand by activists for the Compulsory Purchase of buildings that have been vacant for more than 12 months, and calls on the management to immediately draw up a register of all vacant residential units in the Clondalkin LEA to find suitable buildings for Compulsory Purchase by the council.”    

REPORT:

South Dublin County has the lowest vacancy rate in the Country at 3.6% (as per the CSO 2016). In accordance with the National Vacant Housing Re-use Strategy 2018- 2021, each local authority was required to identify the scale of vacant homes and develop plans to address vacancy within their administrative area, by categorising those homes by location, ownership and reason for vacancy and subsequently to identify those properties that have the potential to be refurbished and made available for use. There are currently 19 vacant units identified within the Clondalkin LEA.

The Council’s Vacant Homes Officer acts as central advisory point for property owners in terms of providing advice, assistance and information on these schemes which are available to bring properties back to use. There are several initiatives in place with the aim of encouraging and enabling privately owned vacant homes to be brought back into use whether to the social housing or private rented market these include:

In addition the Housing Agency is engaging with banks, financial institutions and investors to purchase suitable units for social housing use.

The aim in the first instance would be to encourage property owners to engage with the Council and find solutions for the vacant home units without having to resort to the Compulsory Purchase process. However Local Authorities do have a range of legislative powers available to deal with under- utilised and derelict properties for example through the Compulsory Purchase Powers and Derelict Sites Legislation.

Vacant properties can be reported via http://vacanthome.ie