Land Development Agency Bill 'another Nama scandal waiting to happen'

Solidarity-PBP are to fight the bill 'tooth and nail', claiming it will result in the 'pillaging of the public land bank'

Richard Boyd Barrett: 'The LDA is a Trojan horse for the pillaging of the public land bank.' Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

The Government has been accused of putting forward measures that will result in the "theft of public land" and will drive up house prices.

Solidarity-PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett said his group would be fighting the Land Development Agency Bill "tooth and nail", claiming it is "another Nama scandal waiting to happen".

Solidarity-PBP TD @RBoydBarrett says the Land Development Agency (LDA) Bill is a “Trojan horse” which would allow public land to be taken out of public control. He says it’s “a scandal” and “another Nama waiting to happen”. pic.twitter.com/OjPb2EbRZt

— Elaine Loughlin (@Elaine_Loughlin) February 16, 2021

Social Democrats housing spokesperson Cian O'Callaghan said the proposed changes were "effectively privatisation of public land through the backdoor being dressed up as an affordability measure".

Under the Bill, which is due to be debated in the Dáil on Wednesday, councils will be able to transfer State lands to the Land Development Agency (LDA) without a vote from councillors to put the agency on a statutory footing.

The LDA was established as a State agency under secondary legislation in September 2018 to build 150,000 new homes over the next 20 years, as part Project Ireland 2040.

However, under the new Bill, the Government can direct that lands be transferred to the LDA.

Mr Boyd-Barrett said: 

It is a piece of legislation that is setting up a vehicle for the wholesale privatisation of public lands, and for abandoning the traditional provision of council housing by the State.

"The LDA is a Trojan horse for the pillaging of the public land bank."

He said the Bill would give the Government power to transfer public sites into private hands and warned that house prices would not be affordable as a result.

"This Bill does nothing to actually guarantee that housing will be made affordable, but what it does do is provide a mechanism through which without much accountability, public land can be transferred out of direct public control," he said.

The Land Development Agency Bill will facilitate the privatisation of public land through the back door.

This will drive up the cost of homes built on public land.

We need to break from the failed policies that lock thousands of people out of secure and affordable housing. pic.twitter.com/JA21QXIfgU

— Cian O'Callaghan T.D. (@OCallaghanCian) February 15, 2021

Mr O'Callaghan said the Bill would allow private developers to buy public land and then build full market price houses on 40% of that land.

"I'm calling on the minister to commit and to make changes to the Bill to ensure that none of the land can be sold on to private developers if it's public land currently."

He added that all homes built on public land should be public housing or affordable housing.