Councils having to scale back planned works as inflation bites

Cork County Council said the rising cost of building materials, tar and fuel would impact housing provision, road maintenance and keeping its vehicle fleet on the road

The increase in the price of tar will impact on Cork County Council’s ability to maintain and improve its road network, which at 12,000kms is the largest of any local authority in the country. File picture: Denis Minihane

Local authorities are unlikely to be able to carry out all the works they had planned at the beginning of the year because inflation has eaten into many projects.

Cork County Council, which is one of the largest local authorities in the country, has confirmed its management is currently carrying out an assessment of the impact of rising inflation across a number of its services.

The rising cost of materials has impacted housing construction and renovation and the price of tar has increased. This will impact on Cork County Council’s ability to maintain and improve its road network, which at 12,000kms is the largest of any local authority in the country.

The council also has 700 vehicles in its fleet and the cost of keeping them on the road has gone up significantly as fuel prices recently hit record highs.

Last year, the fleet, which includes many large trucks, travelled the equivalent of eight and a half times to the moon and back.

One of the eight municipal district councils in the county was recently informed by officials that the cost of playground equipment had risen by 30% since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Councillors were told the local authority buys the equipment from a company in Eastern Europe, although the country of origin was not specified.

The council wrote to the Government last week stating it must increase the amount of money it provides for people to adapt their homes because they are elderly and/or disabled.

Fianna Fáil leader on the council Seamus McGrath won cross-party support for the move. He said construction costs have skyrocketed and as a result many of these people can’t afford to get all the adaptations done to their homes that they need.

Declan Hurley, spokesman for the independents on the council, said: “These grants are crucial. They can mean the difference between a person staying at home or going into care.” 

The Mayor of County Cork, Independent councillor Danny Collins, said there is not a week that goes by that he does not help two or three such people fill out forms for this type of grant aid. He said he could see the money being offered by the Government for housing adaptations simply was not enough to cover rising construction costs.

Mr McGrath told the Irish Examiner that he and his colleagues were becoming “increasingly concerned” about the widespread impact of inflation on the county council's ability to deliver services.

'The impact is seen across the board. The cost of renovating vacant houses has increased, upgrading playgrounds, carrying out road improvement works, running the council's vehicle fleet and so on.' File picture: Larry Cummins

“As we know, the cost of practically everything has increased and nobody could have foreseen this level of inflation when we adopted our annual budget last November. 

"So far, the council has done a good job in protecting services on the ground in the context of rising costs, but naturally there will be a cumulative effect the longer this goes on,” Mr McGrath said.

“The impact is seen across the board. The cost of renovating vacant houses has increased, upgrading playgrounds, carrying out road improvement works, running the council's vehicle fleet and so on. It seems clear now that funding for work programmes will not deliver the quantum of work that was initially envisaged."

Mr McGrath said there was little doubt this would lead to some difficult choices being made when the county council meets in November to decide its budget for 2023.