Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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549. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the yield if the vacant site levy introduced by the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015 was implemented in 2017 and increased by 2%, 3% and 5% respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26119/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015, enacted in July 2015, introduced a new measure, the vacant site levy, which is aimed at incentivising the development of vacant, under-utilised sites in urban areas. Under the Act, planning authorities are required to establish a register of vacant sites in their areas, beginning on 1 January 2017 and to issue annual notices to owners of vacant sites by 1 June 2018 in respect of vacant sites on the register on 1 January 2018. The levy shall be applied by planning authorities, commencing on 1 January 2019 in respect of sites which were vacant and on the vacant site register during the year 2018 and shall subsequently be applied on an annual basis thereafter, as long as a site remains on the vacant site register in the preceding year.

Planning authorities are empowered to apply an annual vacant site levy of 3% of the market value of vacant sites exceeding 0.05 hectares in area - with reduced or zero rates of levy applying in specific circumstances – which, in the planning authority’s opinion, were vacant or idle in the preceding year, in areas identified by the planning authority in its development plan or local area plan for residential or regeneration development. The 3% rate of vacant site levy is consistent with the rate applied to derelict sites under the Derelict Sites Act 1990 and is considered reasonable, without being over-punitive, for the purposes of incentivising the activation of such sites for residential or regeneration purposes. In this regard, it is also worth noting that all levies due on an individual site shall remain a charge on the land concerned until all outstanding levies due are paid so there will be a cumulative effect associated with not activating a site for development purposes for each year a site remains vacant or idle.

The proceeds of the levy raised on vacant sites by planning authorities will be used by them for the provision of housing and regeneration development in the local area in which vacant sites are located. No more than 10% of the levy monies received by planning authorities may be used on their collection and administration costs. At this time, it is not possible to provide an estimate of the annual levies that may be raised by planning authorities in the operation of the levy/or to estimate the annual levies that may be raised from application of different levy rates than those provided for, or by commencing the application of the levy at an earlier date than is provided for in the Act.