ONE OF THE country’s biggest house builders is being pursued by a county council for a six-figure fine over one of its sites.

The fine is for a seven-acre site valued at €3.5 million that received planning approval for 147 homes less than a year ago.

Kilkenny County Council is trying to levy Glenveagh Homes with a vacant site tax. The move, if successful, would see a €245,000 fine leveled at Glenveagh’s door.

The company appealed the council’s decision to apply the fine to An Bord Pleanála last week. 

Glenveagh’s site on the Granges Road – located in a part of the city opposite a public park and near two hospitals and a number of schools – has been on the council’s Vacant Site Register since 2018.

The company bought the site in 2020 and a second section in 2021, but the council made moves recently to begin penalising the company for not building on it. 

Based in Kildare, Glenveagh is one of the country’s major builders. When describing its market position in April, the company outlined expectations to have delivered 1,400 homes across the country by the end of 2022. 

One local councillor welcomed the move from Kilkenny County Council, citing a “dire need” for housing in the city.

Development

Last October, the council granted permission to Glenveagh for a two-phase development with 87 homes and a childcare facility to be delivered in phase one. Another 60 would follow in the second phase.

The vacant site tax was introduced under legislation in 2015 to help combat the housing and homeless crisis.

The rate that a property owner pays is based on the site’s value and while initially set at 3% of the site’s value, some property can be liable for a 7% rate annually, as in the case of the Granges Road site. 

It applies where planning authorities can designate a site liable under the levy where it has remained vacant and site owners/developers failed under certain conditions to bring forward reasonable proposals to develop or reuse the site.  

In late 2020, Glenveagh was ordered to pay a €350,000 levy to Fingal City Council for an undeveloped site north of Mulhuddart in Dublin 15. 

A spokesman for the company told The Journal it is fighting the application to place it on the council’s Vacant Site Register, saying that the development has been delayed due to an objection – where a local man outlined concerns on pressure on infrastructure – which was later withdrawn, in March of this year. 

“Since acquiring the site, Glenveagh has actively engaged with the planning authorities and secured permission for 147 units on the subject site and adjacent lands,” he said.

“While the decision to grant planning permission was issued by Kilkenny County Council in October 2021, it was delayed by a third-party appeal that was only withdrawn in March 2022.”

The spokesman added that Glenveagh will contend that the site “does not meet the legislative criteria for inclusion” on the register as the public infrastructure – such as waste waterworks – required to service these lands is not in place.

Kilkenny County Council confirmed it has applied to add the Granges Road site to the register in 2018 and decided in recent months to start applying the levy on the undeveloped site.

The standoff has been summed up as a sign of “increased scrutiny” coming on local authorities according to one elected councillor in the southeast city. 

Since the levy’s introduction, there has been controversy over whether councils are using it effectively.

Green Party councillor Maria Dollard told The Journal that council members and the local authority’s executive have been pressured more over the past 12 months from locals querying the use of vacant buildings and empty sites.

“People are paying more attention generally on what is happening with buildings or just sites out on their own in the city,” she said. 

Dollard pointed to recent jobs announcements by pharma company Abbot and US financial services company State Street as elements that, while positive, carry the risk of exacerbating the housing crisis in the city. 

According to Daft.ie, there are just nine residential properties available to rent in Kilkenny at present.

Dollard said: “Those announcements are excellent and it’s great that State Street are building on a new office at their site. But the question that comes up with this is: where in the name of God are these people going to live?

“The reality is it’s literally almost impossible to rent a house in Kilkenny and, like most parts of the country, it’s very expensive to buy a house too. There are so very few housing options for new workers.”

The move by the local authority was one Dollard welcomed, she added. 

“I think this is the council trying to think strategically and not letting it drag on for several more years.”

She said that the site is in an area where a new master plan for development is being launched today Friday, with a new boys school also due to be built in the area over the next two years.

“If they can get the site activated it will allow for more orderly development than letting this happen further down the line.”