Home extensions liable for extra levies

Householders who build extensions to their homes are to be liable for additional development levies to finance roads, water and social amenities.

The inclusion of development levies for residential extensions follows plans by most local authorities to impose significantly increased levies on all new housing and commercial/industrial development.

Householders in a number of counties will be billed by the local authorities for contributions to water supplies, waste water services, use of roads and community facilities regardless of whether their extensions comprise bathrooms, bedrooms or extensions to the living area.

The levies will apply only to extensions above the threshold of 40 square metres for which planning permission will apply, but will be in addition to development levies paid on each home when it is built.

While most councils were unavailable for comment yesterday, The Irish Times has established that Wicklow County Council, Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown and Fingal County Council intend to apply the levies, while Dublin City Council does not.

The charges have been condemned by Independent TD Ms Marian Harkin, who said residential levies represented "a return of rates".

The Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Dick Roche, has criticised the level at which some local authorities set the charges, describing them as "a bureaucrats charge having no relation to the services provided".

The proposed levies vary considerably across the State, with the charge of €15 per square metre being proposed by Killarney Town Council, about €80 per square metre in South Dublin and up to €140 per square metre in Wicklow.

Wicklow County Council's charges have been criticised by the IDA for their "lack of finality". At a meeting to debate the charges last week, the council said its charge breaks down as €90 for roads and transport; €39 for water and drainage; and €11 for community and recreational amenities.

Industrial and commercial development levies are pitched at €51 per square metre for roads and transport; €32 for water and drainage; and €9 for community and recreational facilities.

The council said the charges, which in Wicklow would amount to about €17,500 per average new home, reflected massive expenditure on infrastructure.

A Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council spokesman said its levies of €100 per square metre would also go towards the cost of infrastructure, while a spokeswoman for Fingal said it too planned a €100 per square metre charge, which would also go towards infrastructure.

However, Mr Roche insisted that charging additional development levies for residential extensions, based on additional road usage by the household, made little sense.

Levies, he insisted, should be transparent and reflect only the additional cost to the council resulting from the house extension. Where this was not the case the charges represented "an appalling form of taxation set by bureaucrats".

He said there had always been development levies, and he recalled that the Minister for the Environment had said the new system would allow for greater transparency.

"And it would if people are charged for exactly what they are getting."