No Cork sites made available through ready to build scheme

A Cork TD has said that the government’s Ready to Build scheme is among “a growing list of government housing policy failures”, as new figures show that no Cork sites have been made available through the scheme since its introduction.

A spokesperson for the department of housing, local government and heritage told The Echo that the Ready to Build Scheme to support addressing vacancy was launched in September 2022. 

"It sees local authorities make vacant serviced sites in towns and villages available to potential individual purchasers to build a home."

The department spokesperson explained: “Under the scheme, local authorities identify suitable sites in their ownership, or purchase sites in towns and villages and make them available for sale for the purpose of building a principal private residence.

“Once serviced, the local authority will make the site available for sale at a discount on the market value of the site. The level of discount to the individual will depend on the level of servicing cost incurred by the local authority before the sale of the site, but will not exceed €30,000.”

Since the introduction of the scheme in 2022, 32 sites have been made available, none of which were in Cork, for sale by four local authorities – five sites in Wicklow, four sites in Tipperary, seven sites in Kildare and 16 sites in Laois.

They added: “A further 100 sites are at various stages of consideration by the relevant local authorities and the Department is working with those local authorities to progress such sites.” 

Cork County Council said earlier this month that no sites have been made available to date under the Ready to Build Scheme as “there is no suitable land within the Council's existing landbank for the provision of sites.” 

Social Democrats TD for Cork East Liam Quaide told The Echo that the scheme sounded great on paper.

“The failure to identify a single Ready to Build site in Cork highlights our government’s disconnection from rural Ireland.

“At a time when young families are being priced out of cities and desperately seeking to return or remain in their home communities, this scheme could have been an important lever for rural regeneration.

“Instead, it appears to have been stifled by bureaucratic inertia, poor planning coordination and a lack of ambition. Ready to Build joins a growing list of government housing policy failures, each with a mounting human cost behind them.”