Longford LPT to remain fixed for next five years

Longford County Council members have given their support to proposals to retain the Local Property Tax (LPT) at the existing rate for the term of the Council 2025-2029.

The local authority says the LPT will secure €330,435 per annum in funding to go towards the operational needs of the local authority and support community services.

County Council Chief Executive, Paddy Mahon, said maintaining the Local Property Tax at the same rate for the next five years “brings certainty for the Council and our budget process”.

Longford County Council is set to spend over €109 million in revenue and capital expenditure in the coming year, the elected members were told at the September meeting of the local authority.

The proposal was put to members at the statutory monthly meeting of the authority and is the first stage of the council's budget proposals from the new council, whose members were elected in June of this year. Councillor heard that the total local authority expenditure for 2024 is expected to hit €109.4M, up from €91.91M last year and up from €77.05M in 2019.

Director of Finance, John McKeon, drew members' attention to the fact the budget expenditure will increase by €17.49M on last year, with the capital expenditure increasing by €12.21M.

Council sources of income for '24 come to a total of €69.73M, with grants and subsidies as the main source; and local government fund, goods and services, rates, and payment from Uisce Éireann making up the rest of the monies.

The summary of expenditure shows the local authorities' sources of income from grants and subsidies has grown from below €13m in 2019 to over €32.77m in 2024.

The Director of Finance highlighted a number of projects that have benefited from matched funding. He said 85 projects worth €32.09 have seen the local authority match funding of €3.5 from the local authority.

Mr McKeon said there will be a greater focus on Longford town in the 2025 to 2029 budgets.

Members were told that the Local Property Tax (LPT) is maxed at 15%, and that 94.5% of Longford LPT payers pay less than €5 week.

Of that figure 77.2% pay less than €2 week. Nearly 14,000, those in the lowest band, pay €103.50 per annum.

Explaining the impact of the approach of the local authority to LPT Mr McKeon said: “Since we introduced the upward variation in 2018, what is known locally as the Longford Model, the revenue budget has increased by 54%. That is €24.5M of an increase.”

The Director of Finance said that the figures represent a return on investment of nearly 600% to the Longford LPT payers. There is no proposed change for the next five years from 2025 to 2029.

Mr McKeon said LPT allows matched funding to fund €5m worth of regeneration and capital projects loan, and this in turn has enabled the council to attract over €31m in funding to Longford over the period of last Council (with a further €49m committed to 2029).

The council figures indicated that 39 ongoing regeneration projects are being undertaken by the local authority to the value of €49.06M.

Mr McKeon said Longford County Council's approach to LPT has been emulated in many others: “It's now the standard in the sector and it's there in most local authority,” he said, “By remaining at +15% for the period '25 to '29 it will provide certainty to nearly 18,000 property owners and provide funding for a range of projects.”

Cllr Seamus Butler said there is one consideration in relation to the proposal: “We want to keep going forward and we have. I have one caveat, if we have a new government, as we will within a few months, if they increase Property Tax, then it would behove us to review it.”

Cllr Butler recommended that the elected members continue “as we were”, but retain a “get-out-clause”.

“Hopefully we can increase the rate base, adding additional rate payers, rather than having rate increases. This would be more attractive industrial and commercial activity. This would be of benefit to smaller businesses who are struggling at the moment,” Cllr Butler said.

Cllr Paul Ross agreed with the proposal: “This model has served us extremely well. Longford was one of the first counties in the country to use this model,” he said, “We can really see the benefit that it has brought to the county, in terms of the number of projects that it has helped fund, from connected hubs to tidy towns groups.”

Cllr Mick Cahill, Cllr Turlough McGovern, and Cllr Pat O'Tool all spoke on the proposal and commended the Director of Finance on the proposal.