Builders critical as ruling gets good response

Yesterday's Supreme Court judgment on Part 5 of the Planning and Development Bill 1999 was immediately welcomed by the Government, the Labour Party and the voluntary housing sector. However, the Irish Home Builders' Association (IHBA) and Fine Gael said the provisions in the Bill for social and affordable housing would simply add to the cost of new houses. Private purchasers would be cross-subsidising the public sector, they said.

The IHBA has consistently criticised Part 5, which relates to the proposal that local authorities may designate up to 20 per cent of development land for "affordable housing".

Speaking after the announcement by the Supreme Court, the director of the IHBA, Mr Ciaran Ryan, said the Planning Bill would not effectively address the core issue of increasing the supply of new housing.

He maintained that "the proposal to introduce affordable or social housing as a condition of planning permissions will not add one new house to that supply". He added that it would merely cause cross-subsidisation as private house prices rose to cover the cost of the affordable schemes.

The IHBA position was supported by Mr Billy Timmins TD, of Fine Gael, who said: "Prices in the remaining 80 per cent of the developments will have to pick up the cost of this subsidising."

However, the Minister for Environment and Rural Development, Mr Dempsey, said he was delighted with the Supreme Court decision. The proposals met a clearly identified need to ensure that local authorities could provide social and affordable housing for those who had been priced out of the housing market.

The Minister said it was his intention to begin the provisions on the supply of housing in October. Local authorities have already been asked to prepare strategies to ensure that the provisions can be implemented as soon as possible. The housing organisation Threshold gave a broad welcome to yesterday's judgment, calling for its immediate implementation.

"In the year since this Bill was first announced, the average cost of new houses in Dublin has gone from £141,897 in March of last year to £162,044 in March of this year. This £20,000 increase highlights the urgent need for local authorities to move swiftly to deal with the backlog of need for social and affordable housing" said Threshold's director, Mr Kieran Murphy. "The Bill is central to meeting the needs of those priced out of the ever-spiralling housing market." The decision was also welcomed by the Labour Party, whose spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore TD, described it as "going some way towards striking the right balance between the common good and the rights of property-owners".

He called for the creation of land banks to ensure rapid delivery of new houses.

The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) also welcomed the decision, with its chief executive, Mr Simon Nugent, describing it as helpful in clearing away some of the delays in planning. However, he renewed the CCI's call for a new division of the High Court to handle major planning projects.

The Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) also welcomed the Supreme Court ruling, but added that it was lodging a complaint with the European Commission against the provision for charges to be levied on those who opposed development projects, which is proposed in the Bill.

The Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH) a State-wide federation of non-profit and voluntary housing organisations has also welcomed the introduction of the new powers.