A Freedom of Information request by March4Tipp has revealed that Tipperary County Council waived €283,000 in rates last year in Tipperary Town. In significant cases, very wealthy companies and individuals have benefited. The result is that many valuable commercial and industrial premises lie empty, employing nobody, all of this at a time when businesses that are open for business are struggling to pay rates. Click to read more.
Jobs Badly Needed But Factories Remain Empty
At a time when Tipperary Town, which has the highest unemployment in the County, is crying out for jobs, many commercial and industrial properties lie empty. March4Tipp has discovered that the wealthy owners of many of these properties benefit from zero rates. March4Tipp believes that this actually operates as an incentive to leave buildings empty. The belief is that if the owners had to pay full rates, they would be genuinely looking to either get a paying tenant in, or to sell them to someone who would use them.
The Council, in responding to March4Tipp’s FOI request, did not identify the properties that are the subject of these massive benefits. However, the amount being waived in rates gives an insight into the scale of the properties involved. In the case of one property owner alone, a staggering €70,635.45 was waived by the Council in rates in 2018. This shows clearly that a very large industrial property is involved. Calculations suggest that this property could be in the region of 7,000 square metres. No poor person owns a property of that size, so why are they being subsidised by other rate payers?
In another case a property owner benefited from a waiver of €27,547.97 in rates. Two other property owners benefited by more than €10,000 each, while another benefited by €9,182. In total, 6 property owners benefited by between €5,000 and €10,000 in rates waived for empty properties by the Council in 2018.
Council Incentivising Wealthy Owners to Keep Properties Shut
The obvious conclusion of all of this is that the waiver of rates by the Council is operating as an incentive to keep important properties shut and employing nobody. While the owners properties were not identified in the FOI response from the Council, and these two properties may not be getting any waiver of rates, the former Pall and Atari factories once employed many hundreds of people from the area, effectively fuelling the local economy. Now, they lie idle, employing nobody. The much smaller Sky Innovation Park is now being touted by some politicians as our employment future, while much bigger industrial infrastructure is gathering dust. Some councillors have even said we need a “business park”.
If an owner of a large industrial property that is showing a ‘For Lease” sign and genuinely wanted to lease it, instead of merely wanting free rates, it would be reasonable to see the property advertised for lease in the usual ways. A search online for industrial properties available for lease in Tipperary Town shows surprisingly few results. The popular MyHomes.ie website shows only one small industrial unit for let at the moment. Similarly, on Property.ie, only a handful of small to medium industrial properties were shown available to let. The former Mangan’s property on the Donohill Road was one of these. Leading property website Daft.ie showed only the same small properties available to let. Only the former Pall factory could be found on a single website as available for lease.
- An excerpt from Freedom of Information response from Tipperary County Council
“To Let” Signs With Phone Numbers that Don’t Get Answered
Some “For Lease” signs did not mention any auctioneer and, in some cases, when the phone numbers shown were called by March4Tipp, nobody answered. This would suggest that some “For Lease” signs may in fact be flags of convenience to allow the owners to benefit from zero rates.
All of this is being revealed at a time when struggling businesses in the town face increased Council demands for rates, even though their businesses are seriously impacted by the Council’s road works. It is difficult to see the justice in €283,000 in rates being waived for property owners by the Council when hard pressed businesses must pay up.
March4Tipp points out that small, struggling businesses that are not making money are forced to pay their rates, while rich property owners pay no rates as they sit on their large, empty properties; properties that could be employing people.
The Council Could Have Removed Paid Parking and Stayed Within Budget
March4Tipp found out that the €70k Council revenue from paid parking in 2018, which seriously reduces retail activity, pales in significance when compared to the €283k in rates the Council seems happy to decline from property owners. For example, had the Council collected the €70,635 it waived for one wealthy property owner alone, it could have removed paid parking from the entire town and stayed within budget. One of the excuses made by Councillors when they refused to abolish paid parking in January was that it had to be done within budget.
Owners of 124 Properties in Tipperary Town Paying No Rates
The Council’s response to March4Tipp states “Vacancy relief is granted in accordance with Section 14 of the Local Government Act, 1946, which authorises the local authority to grant a relief where it is satisfied that the property has been vacant either for the purposes of refurbishment and repair, or the owner has been unable to obtain a suitable tenant”. Tipperary Town has ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR properties paying no rates based on that excuse. It would appear that the Council is easily “satisfied” by claims of vacancy for repairs or unavailability of tenants. There have been numerous accounts of potential businesses who wanted to lease premises in the town, but were unable to negotiate a lease.
Same Rule for Big and Small
No doubt, some property owners suffered very badly in the recession and simply can’t get a tenant to lease the property. However, none of these would be in the order of 7,000 square metres or worth €70,635 in annual rates. The March4Tipp concern is about the large commercial and industrial properties that are empty and where their owners are being financially assisted by our Council in keeping them closed. They benefit from a rule that was intended to help those in difficulty, and the Council is aiding and abetting them is reducing their costs and making more profit.
It beggars belief that neither our Council or our local public representatives have pointed out this glaring injustice before March4Tipp was forced to demand this information through the Freedom of Information legislation. Indeed, late last year Councillors voted to maintain this policy again for 2019. Over those two years alone more than a half a million of rates will have been waived for vacant properties in Tipperary Town alone, with current rate payers carrying the burden of that relief for often wealthy property owners.
Note: the use of the above for lease sign images does not necessarily indicate that those properties are benefiting from any reduction in rates. The Council did not disclose any information to identify benefiting properties.
