Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 1980 > Committee on Commercial State-Sponsored Bodies > Report No. 12 - National Building Agency, Limited

APPENDIX 15

LETTER TO CLERK TO JOINT COMMITTEE FROM KILDARE COUNTY COUNCIL

I refer to your letter of 14th November ’79 in relation to the submission of the views of Kildare County Council in connection with the National Building Agency Limited.

Kildare County Council has at present no works on hands which involve the National Building Agency. However, the Agency has been employed by the County Council to build houses in a number of areas in the County and these schemes have been completed and taken in charge by Kildare County Council.

Houses were also built for industrial workers in Kildare Town and Athy, but because the sale of these houses did not materialise under the normal mortgage conditions, the Kildare County Council and the Athy Urban District Council bought them with the approval of the Minister for the Environment, and let them in accordance with the provisions of the Housing Act 1966.

Most schemes recently built have given every satisfaction but the earlier schemes which were built as “low cost” housing have given a lot of trouble with maintenance repairs and a lot of complaints from tenants.

Contact with the local authority and more active supervision of the schemes by the Agency with the submission of regular progress reports would be of considerable benefit to the local authorities.

Close liaison has been maintained with the local authorities in the purchase and development of land for housing and if the Agency has land which it is not prepared to develop it has indicated a willingness to dispose of such land to the local authority.

Negotiations for the acquisition of land from the N.B.A. are at present being carried out in Kildare Town (Bishopland) and at Athy. It is hoped that this land will be developed by the Agency on behalf of the local authorities. One problem that is causing concern to the local authorities is the pricing policy of the N.B.A. for land. The “holding charges” very often make the cost of the land to the local authorities very expensive and could lead to an inflated land valuation pattern being established, which could be used for determining land values in the particular locality. Separate submissions are being made by the Town Clerk, Naas and the Town Clerk, Athy.

21 December 1979

County Manager.