Kilkenny Council is one of the country’s best performing local authorities: report

By COLIN BARTLEY

KILKENNY County Council continues to be regarded as one of the best performing local authorities in the country, a new report reveals.

Just 27 social houses in Kilkenny were vacant at the end of 2018, while it took less than five months to move in new tenants to vacated local authority houses.

These are some of the best figures for any local authority in the country when it comes to housing,according to a recently published audit of local authorities.

The National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) shows Kilkenny council has one of the lowest number of vacant social houses in the country.

The report also found the council did a great job in keeping the county litter-free and maintaining the water supply to a very high standard. The collection of rates, rents and housing loans all increased in Kilkenny in 2018, meaning the council saw returned a slight surplus of just over €17,000 for the year.

The Local Authority Performance Indicator Report 2018 also shows our local authority improved their performance and efficiencies year-on-year.

In terms of vacant local authority houses, just 1.14%, or 27 out of 2,374 social homes were vacant in Kilkenny at the time of the report.

Only Laois, Carlow and Monaghan had a lower percentage of vacant homes than Kilkenny, all reporting less than 1%.

Kilkenny also fared well in the time taken to turn houses around between one tenant exiting and another moving in, averaging 21 weeks.

Westmeath County Council was the best for turning vacated houses around, managing to house new tenants within eight weeks. Conversely, tenants in Cavan had to wait nearly a year-and-half to get into a vacated local authority house.

The collection of rates rose by 5% to 93% complaint, rents rose by 1% to 93%, while the repayment of housing loans is up 11% in five years.

The report contained just one black mark against Kilkenny council. It found just 16% of Kilkenny households make use of a three-bin system – general waste, recycling and compostable bins.

A council spokesperson said: “All staff, management and elected members are to be commended for the work undertaken, to continue to strive to deliver a better service for our communities and all our service users.

“We will strive in 2019 and in future years to deliver an improved service within the available resources and seek more efficient methods of delivery.”