More CPOs of vacant Laois properties promised by Laois County Council

"Much higher" numbers of idle empty or derelict Laois properties will be forcibly bought by Laois County Council this year, according to its new CEO Michael Rainey.

Mr Rainey who had been Laois Housing Officer earlier in his career, announced the increased use of the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) legal process, speaking at the January meeting of Laois County Council.

"We've done good work this year, we've seen six CPOs commenced, and 75 activations. We will be giving new focus there on regenerations. So you will see the numbers of CPOs going forward for 2025 will be much higher than what we have here. That's not to say there wasn't good work done in 2024," the CEO said.

It follows from his commitment to doing more to combat vacancy and rejuvenate towns and villages after being appointed as the new Laois CEO last year.

Laois County Council has formed a "multi-disciplinary regeneration team" combining staff from housing, planning, derelict sites and the Town Regeneration Officer, to tackle vacancy and dereliction. They are prioritising Portlaoise, Rathdowney, Mountrath and Mountmellick.

A survey of 1,096 Laois properties identified as vacant in the Department of Housing's GeoDirectory, confirmed that 708 were vacant, with 47 of them showing dereliction.

The team contacted owners of 19 out of 30 vacant properties in Portlaoise alone, to try and have them returned to use. 

"Where all other means of returning the properties to use have been exhausted, use of the CPO process to acquire properties deemed to be suitable for social housing may be considered. Suitability will depend on the... need in particular locations," Laois County Council stated this month.

The council hit their target set by Government of starting six new CPOs in 2024. 

Those are on Bracklone Street, Portarlington, two sites in Old Knockmay Portlaoise, Triogue Manor Portlaoise, Main Street Stradbally and finally Abbey Court Portlaoise, where the council also bought another vacant house by CPO last year.

The council exceeded its target of adding 75 properties into their Vacancy/Dereliction activation programme in 2024, placing a total of 78 on the list. They took 48 properties off the list after action was taken.

The regeneration team has 102 files in progress, 42 of which are on the Derelict Sites Register. The rest are going through a process including correspondence with owner/occupiers and site inspections. 

Eleven properties were removed from the register in 2024 after the owners carried out improvement works on them. See Laois Derelict Sites Register of properties here.