Local Authority: Wexford County Council
Issue: Vacant council houses
Wexford County Council bought three vacant houses under a government scheme between 2017 and 2020, which required significant repairs, but to date refurbishments have not been completed and the houses continue to remain idle.
The houses are referred to in an internal council audit, completed in April 2021, which examined 17 properties acquired under a government scheme from 2017 to 2020, known as the Buy and Renew scheme. Just 10 of those properties were let out for social housing, the internal audit found.
The scheme, which funds the acquisition and refurbishment of vacant dwellings for social housing, was introduced in 2017 to help address the housing crisis and encourage urban renewal but in Wexford, at least, it appears that it has had mixed results.
In some cases, houses purchased by the council under the scheme have remained idle.
The audit also revealed that for three of the houses bought between 2019 and 2020, council technical staff warned those houses were unsuitable for refurbishment, but the council nevertheless went ahead and purchased them.
In one case, the council purchased a property in April 2019 for €62,000. According to the audit, council technical staff who had previously inspected the property warned that it was unsuitable for purchase and "way beyond the scope of housing maintenance".
But the council proceeded even though, according to the audit, "there was no justification on file for the decision to proceed with the purchase". The audit also noted that "it appears that no refurbishment works have been carried out to date".
Another purchase highlighted related to a terrace house in a town in Wexford. Council technical staff who had initially inspected the property in May 2019 recommended that it should not be purchased because of the extent of the work required to renovate it.
But the same technical staff revised this recommendation that August and said the property is "ideally located" near the town centre "and would be a good addition to the housing stock". There was no explanation in the file relating to this reversal.
The council then purchased the house for €120,000 in September 2020. Again, no refurbishment works had been carried out on the property, the audit stated, which quoted council management as saying that covid restrictions had delayed the start of refurbishment.
Meanwhile, the audit stated that where council technical staff "have recommended against purchasing a property, and the Council subsequently proceed to purchase that property, detailed justification for this decision should be documented and included on the file".
The council recently told RTÉ Investigates that of the 17 properties acquired under the scheme, which were referred to in the audit, 13 "properties have been completely redeveloped and fully returned to use".
It said that it now plans to develop a five-unit housing scheme on one of the sites it acquired under the scheme
In the case of three of the properties acquired during this period, it acknowledged "the inordinate delay in completing these refurbishment works", adding that it "intends to proceed with the design and tendering of these works in 2022".
It also said that it had obtained "excellent value for money" in the purchase prices paid for those properties,
It added: "While the main purpose of the Buy and Renew Scheme is to deliver additional authority social housing units, there can be an additional advantage when acquiring a vacant town centre property in terms of remediation of town centre dereliction, renewal of streetscape and reinvigorating town centre activity."
