EU can use 'significant legislative levers' to deliver affordable housing

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signalled that the European Affordable Housing Plan would offer a 'radical overhaul' of how the EU tackles housing.

The European Union can use “significant legislative levers” to help ensure the delivery of affordable housing in Ireland, Chambers Ireland has said, ahead of the publication of the bloc’s first ever European Affordable Housing Plan next month.

The business networking body has also urged the EU to provide clear and straightforward regulatory frameworks for housing while discouraging the “gold-plating” of EU regulations at national level, which Taoiseach Micheál Martin has claimed is hampering infrastructural development for major housing projects here.

It comes as the Government’s own revised national housing plan is set to be unveiled, but senior sources have already sought to downplay the scope of the plan as many of the measures have been announced already.

Furthermore, government house building targets are set to fall significantly short again this year.

In September, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signalled that the European Affordable Housing Plan would offer a “radical overhaul” of how the EU tackles housing.

“It will be a European effort, anchored in local realities,” Ms von der Leyen said.

“We need a radical overhaul of the way we tackle this issue. We need to revise our state aid rules to enable housing support measures.

“We need to make it much easier to build new houses and student residences. And we will also propose a legal initiative on short-term rentals to tackle the remaining issues.” 

Affordable housing plan to be published before Christmas

The European Commission has received 13,000 submissions via its consultation process for the affordable housing plan, which is due to be published before Christmas.

In its submission, Chambers Ireland said there were multiple measures that Europe could take that would benefit Ireland in its delivery of affordable housing.

“Ireland, like many EU member states, faces a severe housing shortage that directly impacts our ability to attract and retain talent, exacerbates labour shortages, and undermines the competitiveness of our economy,” it said.

“While housing is a national competence, there are significant legislative levers that can be pulled at EU level to enable delivery, mobilise both public and private investment, and reduce regulatory barriers to help facilitate the expansion of housing supply across the country.” 

Among its recommendations were the cutting of red tape, simplifying procurement, and revising “outdated” state aid rules to allow “flexible, targeted, and time-limited aid”.

It also discouraged the “gold-plating” of EU standards, which the Taoiseach had hit out at in an interview with the Irish Examiner recently. 

Gold plating is when Irish laws go beyond what is required when transposing EU rules into our legislature.

“We have got to look at how we transpose EU directives and whether we’re doing them effectively, efficiently, or maybe not to gold-plate them in the future," Mr Martin said.

However, in recent decades, Ireland has been fined millions of euro in multiple instances for delays in transposing EU law.