Housing charity The Peter McVerry Trust put forward a number of proposals to encourage the movement of property to social housing providers and local authorties in its pre-budget submission.

One of the measures is a proposed tax on empty homes, similiar to that which operates in other countries. The tax would be three times the normal local property tax and scale to a maximum level.

The charity also proposed a zero per cent Vat rate for construction involving the reuse of long term vacant buildings as well as an increase in credit available under the repair and leasing scheme.

In their submission the charity called for €200 million in investment for capital housing projects to ramp up the delivery of one-bedroom homes, saying that an acute under supply of accomodation for single people was having an impacton homeless figures.

Read the full report and proposal listings here.