CCI lends support to property levy
The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) has today welcomed the introduction of service levies on new houses that are to be imposed by local authorities.
Local authorities are to introduce a levy on homes to cover the cost of a county's infrastructural development according to reports this morning.
In response to this news, CCI chief executive said:"Every house that is built represents an increased cost to local authorities in terms of services and it is not unreasonable that the people who are going to live in the houses and benefit from these services should have to contribute.
"At the moment, small and medium sized enterprises, which are struggling to survive, are being forced to fund the provision of services for new houses through rising commercial rates and, in many cases, these SMEs are not benefiting in any way from the development of more houses in their areas.
"Local Government has never been fully compensated for the abolition of domestic rates despite promises made by Central Government at the time,and the benchmarking bill imposed by the Government on local authorities for the coming year will be in the region of ā¬140m," Dunne concluded.
