Report shows Cork's councils were owed combined €6.5m in overdue site levies 

Cork City and County Councils were owed a combined total of approximately €6.5m for uncollected vacant and derelict site levies at the end of 2023, it has been disclosed in Local Government Audit Reports.

The audit report relating to Cork City Council for 2023 revealed that while the authority collected €1.1m of derelict site levies during the year, arrears at year's end had grown to almost €5m (€4.935m).

During 2023, the City Council collected €428k in Vacant Site Levies, including €294k related to two sites owned by the City Council itself.

The auditor’s report noted: “Arrears have increased to €364k, for which the Council has made a full bad debt provision.” While Cork County Council issued invoices for €525k for vacant site levies during 2023 and a further €28k for derelict site levies, the Local Government Auditor found it collected just €126k in total and that the uncollected balance at year’s end was €843k in respect of vacant site levies and a further €363k in uncollected derelict site levies.

“Based on the register of derelict sites, it was noted at audit that a further €235k of DSL invoices should have been issued during 2023 but management advised this was not done due to a lack of a centralised approach across the various municipal districts.” 

The total combined debt owed to Cork County Council when the Vacant Site Levy and Derelict Site Levy debts are added came to €1,206,000. When combined with Cork City Council’s figures for derelict and vacant site levy arrears, this brings the total for both local authorities to almost €6,570,000.

According to the County Council audit report, which is required under Section 60 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014, its Vacant Site Register had sites listed with an aggregate value of €7.5m. Cork City Council had eight confirmed sites on its vacant site register in 2023 with a combined market value of €7.1m, including two council sites with a combined value at €4.2m. No new sites had been added to the register since 2018.

The auditor’s report states that it had previously been acknowledged that “significant work has been undertaken by the Council to progress the identification and invoicing of derelict sites across each municipal district”.

Included in the auditor’s report is a response from Cork County Council’s CEO Moira Murrell who described the vacant site levy (VSL) as a “land activation tool” and said regard must be given to “the dynamic nature of the process” when administering it.

“Cork County Council will continue to maintain and update its Vacant Sites Register as appropriate until it is replaced with the Residential Zoned Land Tax.

“The outstanding levies will remain as a charge on the land and will be collected when activation occurs.” 

In relation to the Derelict Site Levy, the CEO said that the Council had conducted a comprehensive assessment of the details of its Derelict Site Levies Register during 2023. 

This was focused particularly “on review of the market valuations of derelict sites and on changes in the ownership of properties on the Derelict Sites Register”.

 “One of the main objectives of this specific focus was to verify ownership details and to facilitate a targeted and centralised approach to DSL,” the CEO wrote.

“To facilitate this, the overall management and monitoring of the Derelict Sites Registers for the 8 Municipal Districts in County Cork has been centralised and there are now 110 properties on the Derelict Sites Register for County Cork.

“Responsibility for the issuing of levy demands and for pursuing collection has also been centralised and a new process for the escalation of unpaid levies has been established to flag instances where pursuing defaulters through the courts should be considered.” 

In the 2023 report for Cork City Council, the auditor noted that three of the accounts had been written off as they were deemed to be “statute-barred”. 

“More robust processes are required to ensure levies are pursued in a more timely manner to prevent other accounts becoming uncollectable,” the auditor noted.

In a response included in the audit report, the City Council CEO described as “challenging” the collection of derelict site levies because the authority was dealing with “distressed assets”. “This often involves lengthy engagement to achieve resolution,” the chief executive said.

“Cork City Council will continue to work with all property owners to identify and ensure the timeliest removal of dereliction,” the CEO said. “Synergies will be achieved following the combination of planning, property, derelict and vacant sites into one directorate.

In a statement issued in response to a query from The Echo, anti-dereliction campaigners Dr O’Connor and Ms Sherry said that the latest data raised many questions, including why was it still taking so long for the Councils to enforce a law which was introduced in 1990 and which the Councils had been tasked with implementing from the outset.

“It is important to remember that this lack of enforcement is costing lives and traumatising generations through keeping homes off the market, and eroding our urban centres across the county, to name just two of many, many other well documented negative societal impacts,” they said.