Builders in rush to avoid council levies on new homes

Local authorities across the country are being swamped with planning applications by house-builders as they try to avoid the cost of new levies that are to be put on new homes in the New Year.

The rush, mainly by those building one-off homes, is sparked by councils adopting draft Development Contribution Schemes (DCS) which will be brought into force next March.

In the draft schemes, councils are proposing in some instances to places levies of up to €12,000 on new homes which will apply on developments that have secured planning permission from March 10th next. As a result of the rush, planning departments across the country will be put under serious strain over the next number of months in dealing with the surge in plans lodged.

According to figures from Galway Co Council, it received 73 planning applications on one day alone last week - this compares to an average of just over 100 for the four weeks of October before the draft scheme was formally adopted. Other figures from Galway show that for the first two weeks of December, the local authority received 182 and 149 planning applications respectively.

The situation is similar in Clare where according to its latest figures, the council received 101 planning applications for the week ending December 12th - this is a 100 per cent increase on applications received for the last week in November.

Figures for Cork and Limerick county councils also show a dramatic increase - ranging from 37 per cent in Cork to 31 per cent in Limerick. Already, the scheme proposed for Dublin City Council is facing a High Court challenge from the Construction Industry Federation, which could have knock-on effects for the implementation of the scheme in other local authorities.

Clare County Council's head of planning, Mr Ger Dollard, said yesterday that the panic associated with the scheme was "misplaced".

If the present draft scheme was introduced some people would probably be paying less than the current charge, he said.