Planning laws - No more cash in lieu of houses

In its new report, Building for Inclusion, Focus Ireland indicates that targets in providing social and affordable housing are not being met for a variety of reasons.

The report is particularly critical of the process of allowing builders to make cash payments in lieu of providing actual houses.

When the scheme was first introduced in 2000 as part of the Planning and Development Acts, it was designed to ensure that 20% of the land in most housing developments should be reserved for social and affordable houses, but the industry lobbied strongly against it, going all the way to the Supreme Court.

The law was amended in 2002 to give builders the option of handing over money or land to councils instead. As a result the original intent of the law has been largely circumvented.

Councils have collected some €25 million in payments, but few houses have been built with this money.

Thus the output in social and affordable houses is well behind target. In 2004 the output only reached 30% of the planned figure, and this only increased to 35% in 2005.

While any improvement might be welcomed, the overall figure is derisory.

The practice of allowing builders to hand over land or money instead of building the houses should be discontinued, because local authorities and the Department of Environment have demonstrated that they are incapable of doing the job.