Planning permissions falling, says CSO

THERE was 17% drop in the number of planning permissions granted for new houses and apartments in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.

This was due to the termination of most urban renewal schemes in December 2002 and the fact that many builders have planning permission for schemes which can be built over the next two years, according to the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

Despite the drop, the CIF is still predicting that a record 60,000 new houses will be built this year.

"There was a record 57,000 new houses built last year, and house registration figures for this year show a 14% increase on that number," CIF spokesman Kevin Gilna said.

Builders still have sufficient planning permissions secured to keep them going for two more years, so the impact of this drop will not be felt for some time, Mr Gilna added.

Although economists have warned the construction industry that it must cut back on the number of houses being built because of the downturn in the economy, Mr Gilna said the demand is still as high as ever.

Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday revealed 13,541 planning permissions were granted for new dwellings in the first quarter of this year, compared to 16,305 in the same quarter of 2002.

The CSO figures also show that:

Planning permissions were granted for 9,511 new houses in the first quarter of this year, compared to 12,105 in the same period last year a 21% drop.

4,030 planning permissions were granted for new apartments in the first quarter of 2003, compared to 4,200 last year a 4% drop.

One-off houses accounted for 43% of all new houses granted planning permission in the first three months of this year.

Many developers were opposed to the controversial rule introduced by former Environment Minister Noel Dempsey, which forced them to allocate 20% of all new estates to social and affordable housing.

But Mr Dempsey's successor, Minister Martin Cullen reversed this ruling and gave developers an opt-out clause.

They can now pay local authorities a fee if they do not want to allocate 20% of their new estates in this way.

The Irish Planning Institute (IPI) does not believe that this rule change had anything to do with the drop in the number of planning permissions granted this year.

IPI secretary Philip Jones said: "Builders would not have been holding back on applying for new planning permissions in the hope that the rules would be changed, because they already had enough permissions in the system to keep them going for two years."