‘Taxpayers picking up bill for one-off housing’

THE explosion of one-off houses is costing taxpayers millions of euros each year, according to an evaluation carried out by the Green Party.

The Greens found that infrastructural and service costs associated with rural houses were far greater than for clusters of houses, but that most of the extra costs were being borne by the taxpayers.

It found that:

mail delivery to rural housing was three times more expensive;

waste collection was two and a half times dearer;

phone and electricity connections were between two and five times more expensive;

footpath provision and public lighting were an extraordinary 11 times higher.

“ESB statistics show the price customers are charged for a domestic supply connection differs substantially between urban and rural areas.

“For rural areas, the average connection costs the ESB €2,000 while it is €900 in urban areas. However, only half of this is recouped from the rural customers. Thus the rural connection is 122% higher,” it sates.

While acknowledging that there has been no definitive survey carried out on the environmental, economic and social cost of dispersed once-off housing, the survey points out what it describes as the extra burden of cost that is shared by all taxpayers.

“Services that are brought to the doorstep of the dispersed homeowner, and whose marginal extra cost is borne by general taxation, include telecom services, emergency health services, fire brigade and social services,” it says.

At a recent appearance at the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Eircom representatives said that part of the reason why fixed-line costs are so high in Ireland is because of the high number of once-off rural houses in Ireland.

Turning to the environmental costs, the paper argues that “one-off dwellings are not easily served by public transport and increased traffic from dispersed housing is inevitable.

“International studies indicate that Irish people spend an inordinate amount of time behind the wheel. This is reflected by a number of statistics.

“The number of kilometres travelled by the Irish car per year is twice the EU average. The Irish figure is 30% higher than the US average and appears to be the highest in the world.”

One surprising statistic from an international report in 2000, says the party, was the average Irish vehicle travels 24,400 km each year, twice the EU average.

The figures for Germany, France and Britain are 12,700 km, 14,100 km, and 16,100 km respectively. The party attributes this to long-distance commuting.

The paper concedes that it is cheaper to build a one-off but argues that many of the costs associated with one-off rural housing are borne by the community. “One US commentator has attached a living-cost differential to sprawl,” it states. “He puts the increased cost at $9,000 to $14,000 per household per year.

“The true costs of urban sprawl are overwhelming,” the paper contends.