Further calls for review of DCB rates amid rising costs - Donegal Daily

There have been further calls for the Defective Concrete Blocks rates to be reviewed to reflect the ’actual construction costs’ homeowners are now facing.100% R...

There have been further calls for the Defective Concrete Blocks rates to be reviewed to reflect the 'actual construction costs' homeowners are now facing.

100% Redress Party Councillor Joy Beard made the call, while highlighting how DCB howeowners are 'still expected to build to 2024 rates'.

She said: "The current Defective Concrete Blocks grant rates are based on SCSI material and labour costs from March 2024.

"But SCSI’s own figures show just how much residential rebuilding costs have moved since then.

"In its 2024 House Rebuilding Guide, SCSI reported that rebuilding costs in the North-West had increased by 10% over the previous 12 months.

"Then in its 2025 update, SCSI reported a further 9% increase in the North-West.

"Compounded, those two annual increases amount to almost 20%.

"To be clear, these percentage increases come from SCSI’s House Rebuilding Guides for insurance reinstatement costs, so they are not a direct recalculation of the DCB grant rates.

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"The very organisation whose March 2024 material and labour costs underpin the DCB rates has subsequently reported substantial increases in residential rebuilding costs in the North-West.

"Yet in 2026, homeowners are still being asked to rebuild and remediate their homes using rates based on 2024 costs. I hate to say it but 2027 will be upon us in no time."

Cllr Beard stressed how costs are continuing to climb further and further.

She said: "And now we are being warned about further inflationary pressure from energy, oil, transport and manufacturing costs.

"Every percentage point not reflected in the grant rates is another cost potentially pushed back onto families who did not cause this crisis.

"The DCB rates need to be reviewed now and on an annual basis to reflect the actual construction cost."

This article is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme