Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

I thank the Minster for the comprehensive response. To be fair to him, I do detect an appetite to comprehensively address this real social problem across our country. It is a scourge that affects every community. The Minister said quite correctly that dereliction is complex. I do not pretend that it is not. We have been dealing with this in my community for a long time. We are trying to come up with innovative ways in which this problem can be addressed. We encounter all of the time questions over ownership. Properties are in probate for a period of time and maybe it is difficult to establish who the owner is. However, these are not the people we are necessarily concerned about. Those problems are objective facts. There are situations where people allow their properties to simply go to rack and ruin and they then become public health and public safety problems. The Administration in Scotland has declared dereliction to be a public health issue. If we map it, we will see that for lots of different reasons, dereliction is particularly pronounced in areas that are marginalised. We need to look at this problem through that lens as well.

One area we also need to discuss and properly interrogate is initiatives that have been taken elsewhere, such as those, for example, in countries that have introduced compulsory sales orders. Compulsory purchase orders can be a challenge. A number of years ago, a law review group came up with proposals to streamline the process relating to such orders. The Minister for housing is looking at that at the moment.

The question of how we go about compulsory purchase orders also is an important issue. In my view, with regard to dereliction and property more generally, we need to look at the public interest factor rather than the primacy of private property because this has got out of hand and is causing real problems in the middle, as we are all aware, of a housing crisis. For many different reasons and in particular from a sustainability point of view, it is much easier to turn around an existing property than to build on a new site. On those sites where there are derelict properties, the chances are there are services already available that can be easily plugged into to accommodate people. In terms of the proposals the Minister has made in the context of this Bill, and changes to the living cities initiative, the living over the shop proposal is very positive in terms of breathing new life back into our towns and city centres. That is really important.

I take the point the Minister made in relation to the onus and obligation on local authorities to deal with this efficiently. I have made a proposal and I hope that it flies with local authorities. As I said earlier, my own local authority is interested in using the existing business improvement district scheme zone and applying it in terms of the operation of this scheme. That may short-circuit and address any complications the Department may be anticipating. The Minister is absolutely right. When we start remapping areas, it could go on forever. It is subject to lobbying and so on from individuals. That is the clearest and cleanest way to deal with it. I thank the Minister for his response. This is a welcome initiative.