Louth Chief Executive aims to seek 15% increase in Local Property Tax

A hike in the Local Property Tax (LPT) is a neccessity if Louth County Council is to deal adequately with maintenance requests and vacant homes, Louth County Council Chief Exective Joan Martin told councillors at the June County Council Meeting, which took place on Monday morning.

Ms Martin was speaking following queries raised by a number of councillors at the meeting regarding maintenance requests and vacant homes in the county.

According to the monthly report prepared by Louth County Council, there are 421 outstanding maintenance requests for local authority houses in the county. There are also 72 vacant properties in the county.

The chief executive told the members present at the monthly meeting that they were well aware of the inadequate budget at the Council's disposal. The budgetary situation for the upcoming year would be at best the same as last year, and would very likely be worse.

For this reason, Ms Martin told the members that she would be making the request again at this September's meeting, for a 15% increase in the LPT and asked the members to seriously think about it now.

Concluding, Ms Martin reminded the meeting that when they had money, the Council were quickly able to bring voids (vacant homes) back into use.