Coveney Provides €9m for Taking in Charge of Residential Estates
Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Simon Coveney, T.D., announced the allocation of €9 million to assist local authorities in taking in charge 356 developments (accounting for over 17,000 households). In addition to the €9 m allocation almost €4.5m of funding will be sourced by local authorities through bonds and other sources.
Speaking today, the Minister stated that, “the dramatic boom and bust that our residential construction sector experienced over the last 15 – 20 years has left considerable issues for households in developments that would previously have been taken in charge in the normal way. There has been significant progress in tackling these most acute cases, providing for the completion of the majority of unfinished developments. Through the funding I am providing to local authorities we can now map a path towards all residential developments being taken in charge by local authorities. Residents can be confident that the housing developments they live in will be properly finished out and maintained into the future.
This work on taking in charge should also be seen in the context of the Government’s forthcoming Action Plan for Housing and the funding provided through local authorities to support the provision of new infrastructure to support the development of high quality homes for all.”
The funding is being provided under the Minister’s new National Taking in Charge Initiative (NTICI) to accelerate current applications within the taking in charge process relating to around 1,500 developments.The funding will also assist in developing new and more efficient approaches to the taking in charge process. Prior to the construction boom and subsequent crash, local authorities usually would either take an estate in charge (including roads, footpaths, water services etc) or could be requested by residents to do so once a residential estate was complete. However, where work had not been completed to satisfactory standards, there were sometimes delays in the taking in charge (TIC) process as enforcement proceedings including the calling in of bonds can be complex.
The initiative has been guided by the results of a survey of housing developments not taken in charge that was carried out by the Department in December 2015 (and available on the Department’s website). This survey showed that at that point in time there were 5,655 completed housing developments nationally which were not taken in charge by local authorities, 1,500 of which had applications for TIC submitted to the relevant local authority.
Proposals under the NTICI from the local authorities were evaluated by a Steering Group, composed of representatives from the Department, Irish Water and the EPA, who considered the eligibility and selection criteria under three measures namely:
- Measure 1: Housing Estates not containing Developer Provided Water Services.
- Measure 2: Housing Estates served by Developer Provided Infrastructure.
