Green Party proposes plan to fill vacant homes
The Green Party has proposed a new plan to fill vacant homes and revitalise derelict buildings, billing it as the answer to bringing life and living to our town centres. The plan will break down administrative and regulatory barriers to renovation work and establish a single permitting system for fire, accessibility, and planning in a one-stop-shop for renovation work.
If returned to Government, the Green Party will establish a national online register of derelict sites, containing details such as the condition of the buildings, the site’s planning history and zoning objective, and any outstanding levies due on the land. This will help councils and policymakers to identify derelict sites for intervention.
Steven Matthews TD, Green Party Spokesperson for Planning and Local Government, said;
“We have the experience and solutions to bring vacant and empty buildings back to living use. My piece of legislation – The Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill - had complete cross-party support and was supported by architects, planners and industry experts. The legislation is written and advanced, we will enact it if we’re in government.
“It addresses dereliction, it streamlines the processes and it provides for simplified technical guidance for anyone who wants to turn an empty building into a home. This is the answer to bringing life and living to our towns, ending the scourge of vacancy and providing financial support to those who want to make their home in a town, village or city.”
A vital element of this plan is to keep providing financial support for renovation work. The Greens introduced the vacant property refurbishment grant in Government which offers households grants of between €50,000 and €70,000 to bring a vacant or derelict property back into use. The Greens propose to make it easier to access these grants by making them available in staged payments and provide greater powers and resources to local authorities to compulsory purchase derelict buildings.
Minister Ossian Smyth, Green Party candidate in Dun Laoghaire, said;
“I’ve talked to shopkeepers in Dun Laoghaire who have managed to convert the empty spaces over their shops into accommodation and the benefits are many. More homes are available, it brings life back to the streets, residents provide passive surveillance, making streets safer and there are more customers for shops and businesses. We plan to make it easy for this kind of development to take place.”
Once these policies are put in place, there will be no excuse to leave a property vacant. The Green Party will overhaul the system of taxing vacant and derelict properties. The Party will increase the vacant homes tax and expand its scope to include homes currently excluded because they are deemed uninhabitable.
