As a Quantity Surveyor and former lecturer in Construction Economics and Quantity Surveying have called on Government to reflect on their decision to introduce a concrete levy at a time of super inflation in the construction.
The levy will add €1,285 to the cost of a 3 bed semi detached house and in turn will an additional cost of €297 million to the delivery targets in the Governments own Housing for All targets to 2030 according to a recent report from KPMG.
“We produce 5 million cubic metres of concrete and 150 million concrete blocks annually. Concrete is a core building material that is vital to the delivery if roads, footpaths, schools, houses, apartments, offices, factories, flood relief schemes and farm buildings.
At a time of already high inflation where concrete has risen in price by 43% over the last 2 years this levy will bring inflation up to 50% and block inflation will rise from 30 to 36 %. This is unsustainable and Government need to reflect on the consequences of introducing this levy at this time.
The levy will add cost to every building and will have a negative effect on the cost of building houses which will deter young people from building or buying their first home.
The decision by Government to introduce the levy to help meet the cost of the redress scheme for defective concrete will cover only 15% of the cost of the scheme and will but an unfair burden of future generation trying to buy or build a home”.