Questions arise over accuracy of government report on new houses



 

Questions have arisen over the accuracy of the government’s figures on new home completions throughout the country, including in Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal.

It has been claimed that last year that nationally, 8,729 new estate houses and apartments were finished.

But figures from the Local Government Management Agency says the figure is only 848, or 9.7% of what the government claims.

The LGMA figures come from an internal data base used by local authorities known as the Building Control Management System (BCMS).

According to those figures, the total number of houses completed in 2016, excluding vacant properties brought back into use, is about 5,500, just over a third of the almost 15,000 claimed by the Department of Housing.

The department has used new ESB connections to calculate housing completions, which some analysts say is not an accurate measurement.

In Sligo, the official department figure is 75 while th BCMS figure is 6.

In Leitrim, the official figure is 48 but the BCMS figure is none.

And for County Donegal, the figure for home completions in 2016 is 126 while the BCMS say it was five.

Both the department and BCMS contest each others figures.



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