Labour’s housing bill proposes compulsory acquisition of land

The Labour Party has recommended that development land be compulsory acquired at no more than 25 per cent over its existing value in the party's Social and Affordable Housing Bill, which was published today.

The Government’s Housing Action Plan is due to be published on Tuesday.

The party’s spokeswoman on Housing Jan O’Sullivan said the Bill would give effect to the Kenny report published as long ago as 1973 which recommended this approach to development land.

Responding to suggestions that such a move would be unconstitutional she pointed out that the all-party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution in 2004 agreed the move would not be found unconstitutional.

Other elements of the Labour Bill include broadening the remit of Nama to put its primary focus on the provision of housing.

The professionalisation of the landlord sector and the linking of rents to the consumer price index are also included in the bill.

“The residential property market has been effectively dysfunctional since the financial markets crashed in 2008. Construction activity has been nowhere near adequate to meet the needs of the country” said Ms O’Sullivan, who added that as a result the supply of housing for first time buyers, young families and people on lower incomes had fallen well short of what was needed.

“In that regard I am pleased to hear today that the Government seems to be planning to take up the proposal that the Labour Party put in our election manifest to establish a save to buy scheme,” she said.

Ms O’Sullivan, who emphasised that the supply of housing was the key issue, said that as a result of the collapse in public finances the state had not been able to invest adequately in public housing.

“It wasn’t until the previous Government was able to announce a housing investment programme of €3.8 billion in 2014 that any significant progress was made and while we are beginning to see the positive impact of that investment now that the state coffers are in far better health it is clear that we need to do more.”

A separate issue raised by Ms O’Sullivan was the number of vacant houses identified in the census figures published last week. There are over 200,000 vacant properties in the country and over 20,000 of them in Dublin.

She said she would be in favour of giving money to local authorities to buy vacant houses so that they could be repaired and made available for accommodation. During her time in Government money had been given to Kildare County Council for the purchase of vacant houses in Athy and the move had proved to be effective.

Labour Party chairman Willie Penrose suggested that a grant system be introduced to encourage people to repair vacant properties so that they could be put back into the system.

“Hundreds of millions is being spent on rent supplement and some of this could be diverted into making vacant houses habitable,” said Mr Penrose.