FF: Planning change will see fewer social houses built

Developers will be banned from buying their way out of commitments to provide social housing under new planning laws.

But moves to force developers to ensure up to 10% of homes they build are social housing have led to warnings from opposition parties they could make the housing crisis worse.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly defended the reform as he insisted new laws would stop builders being able to escape social housing commitments by giving cash payments to local councils instead of providing homes.

Mr Kelly said the reforms would also see the social housing units having to be predominantly built on the main development site.

However, Fianna Fáil warned changes to the planning laws, known as Part V, could backfire as at present up to 20% of a development needs to be social housing.

In a bid to spur more building, Mr Kelly said local authorities will be able to slap a levy worth 3% of the market value on vacant sites. If the site continues to remain empty, councils can increase the levy annually. “This will not only help to counter the house price increases recently encountered in the market, but an increase in housing supply will also help to address rent increases being experienced in the private rental market.

“This is far better than the social housing model that was in previously which was not working.

“We are also allowing local authorities to change up or down the duration of planning permission for large-scale developments so they can go and speak to developers and say “you are not making progress” — so it’s a kind of use or lose it scenario,” Mr Kelly said.

The Environment Department believes the changes will lead to the building of 4,000 social housing units over the next five years.

Fianna Fáil environment spokesperson Barry Cowen warned that changing the planning laws could damage social housing provision.

“Plans by the Government to change the Part V provision in the Planning Act will do nothing to tackle the social housing crisis, in fact it will exacerbate it.

“By removing the obligation on developers to set aside 20% of developments for social housing as directed by the local authority, it makes a bad situation a lot worse.

“In Ireland there are over 90,000 people on social housing waiting lists; house prices in Dublin alone have gone up 25% in one year, there is a profound housing crisis in the capital and in cities across the country.

“We need strong measures to directly tackle this, reducing the rate to just 10% is a step backwards. I am calling on Minister Kelly to revise the proposed changes to Part V and take into account the effect it will have on the social housing crisis.

“As the property market recovers, Part V will begin to yield results again. This new Government initiative, it does nothing to address the real crisis,” Mr Cowen said.