Council tackles vacancy as €260,000 in vacant site levies collected in Kilkenny

Kilkenny County Council collected over €260,000 in vacant site levies in the first 10 months of 2023, information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows.

There are currently 23 properties on Kilkenny County Council’s vacant sites register, along with 39 on the council’s derelict sites register.

Information also obtained under the FOI act confirmed Kilkenny County Council did not collect any derelict site levies in the first 10 months of last year.

Under the Derelict Sites Act 1990, local authorities are responsible for dealing with derelict sites in their area. They can use certain powers to enforce the clean-up of these sites.

Under the Act, local authorities can prosecute owners who do not comply with notices served, make compulsory land purchases or carry out necessary work themselves and charge the owners for the cost.

The Derelict Sites Act defines a derelict site as any land that ‘detracts, or is likely to detract, to a material degree from the amenity, character or appearance of land in the neighbourhood of the land in question’.

Owners of derelict sites are required to pay a levy to local authorities, which is usually 7% of the market value of the land concerned.

A vacant site is is defined as any land exceeding 0.05 hectares where, in the case of residential land, there is a need for housing in the area, the site is suitable for housing and the site, or majority of the site, is vacant or idle; and, in the case of regeneration land, the majority of the site is vacant or idle and is having a negative impact on the character of the area.

On January 1 2017, Kilkenny County Council established a Vacant Sites Register. There are currently 23 sites on the register.
A site entered on the register is subject to the vacant site levy, payable in arrears each year beginning in 2019. For 2018, the levy was 3% of the site’s market value. For 2019, and every subsequent year, the levy increased to 7%.

A new Residential Zoned Land Tax is set to replace the vacant sites levy this year. The Residential Zoned Land Tax will apply to land which has not been developed for housing, but is serviced and zoned for residential development.

The tax will be 3% of the market value of the land and it will be collected by Revenue. In the meantime, the vacant sites levy continues to apply.

Kilkenny County Council was contacted for comment.