Laois homeowners have spent over €13.1 million in total through the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) since its launch in 2013.
This incentive has facilitated homeowners throughout Laois in carrying out 1,063 home improvement projects over the last four years.
These projects throughout Laois have had an average spend of €12,351 per project, providing a huge boost to the local economy and employment in the construction sector according to the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).
Introduced in 2013, the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) provided homeowners with an income tax credit at 13.5% of qualifying expenditure on home improvement works carried out on a main home or rental property by qualifying contractors.
The success of the scheme in Laois and nationally has been evident with the scale of the work undertaken on home improvements and energy upgrades.
While the scheme concluded at the end of 2018, it was successful in encouraging significant private sector investment in the upgrading of private and rental property throughout Ireland.
Nationally the HRI incentive has facilitated homeowners in carrying out over 147,000 home improvement projects over the last five years with an average spend of €16,766 per project.
The average spend per project in Laois was €12,351, which was below the national average.
Broken down by value, the largest amount of work was carried out completing home extensions (34%), followed by general repair and renovations (25%) and then window replacement (11%) and kitchen replacement (10%).
The scheme was introduced initially in late 2013, but the extension of it to rental properties in late 2014 help increase the number of homeowners who used the scheme.
Shane Dempsey, CIF Communications Director said: “A scheme such as the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) has been a significant contributor to construction activity with registered contractors in Laois and elsewhere throughout the country.
“A total of 1,063 projects in Laois was a very significant level of private investment over the five years of the scheme from homeowners in Laois.
“CIF has worked with stakeholders including the SEAI to ensure contractors were in place to support the work required by homeowners.
“At a time of modest growth in the construction industry, the scheme encouraged investment by homeowners in Laois, which was good news for construction companies and contractors in the county.
“Separately a nationwide programme, the Deep Retrofit Pilot scheme, devised to upgrade homes to the highest energy efficiency levels, has seen only 1 house upgraded in Laois in 2017 and 2018.
“The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers the Deep Retrofit Pilot scheme on behalf of the government. Under this pilot scheme, government funding of up to 50% of the total capital and project management costs for homes than achieve an A3 Building Energy Rating (BER) post retrofit. Up to the end of 2018, a total of 214 homes have been upgraded nationally with a spend of €5.581m under the Deep Retrofit Pilot scheme.”
“It is clear that much more needs to be done to promote this deep retrofit scheme to homeowners in Laois and throughout the country.
“The current ambitious target of 30,000 homes upgrades a year as set out by the government in the National Development Plan (NDP), rises to 45,000 homes per year from 2021 onwards. This initiative has the potential to underpin a sustainable and stable construction industry for the next 25 years.”
SEE ALSO – Councillors reminisce the Blue Bridge at county council meeting
