Mr. Ivan Grimes:

We started looking at the CPO process at the beginning of 2018 and we commenced a formal process in mid-2018. We had a steady flow then up until Covid, which has put a spanner in the works. The process is, by its nature, time consuming and there is a cost to the local authority for each CPO. We have legal costs and, assuming everything goes well, there is the cost of conveyancing, but if there is a challenge, then the costs mount up quickly.

From our perspective, the 49 units that we targeted for CPO were ones we had received complaints about from neighbours about dumping or antisocial behaviour and in respect of which the owners could not be found or they would not engage. We prefer to encourage the owners to come through with the repair and lease and the buy and renew. Although effective, CPO is time consuming and costly.