The Irish Times view on the planning laws: a new system faces early tests

Contentious fast-track planning for big housing schemes will soon be replaced. Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien aims to safeguard predictable timelines in new laws while tackling serious procedural deficiencies in the old. At issue still is whether the latest overhaul of the planning code can free up the delivery of new homes.

The outgoing Strategic Housing Development regime came into being in 2017 in an effort to expedite projects with more than 100 homes or 200 student dwellings. With approval for some large schemes taking longer than 80 weeks even as the housing crisis worsened, the objective was to achieve significantly faster decisions. The system imposed a 16-week deadline. But it was heavily criticised for bypassing local authorities, a departure from best practice. Applications went directly to An Bord Pleanála, and there was no appeal mechanism, apart from f a High Court judicial review.

The board had received 363 applications for SHD approval by the autumn and decided on 320 cases, granting permission to 266. These included 13,623 houses, 33,456 apartments and 9,945 build-to-rent units. Yet fast planning did not lead to fast building. Almost two-thirds of approved SHD projects had not started up to a few weeks ago. The pandemic halted construction last year; there are persistent complaints of developers not activating permissions in the hope of bigger returns later as property values rise; and judicial reviews delayed dozens of projects.

SHD planning will lapse next year. Developers are rushing in before the door shuts. Faced still with a chronic shortage of new homes and rising prices, O’Brien has advanced replacement measures to facilitate large scale residential developments. His Bill aims to replicate positive aspects in the SHD system while abandoning the most controversial bits. Thus, mandatory pre-application consultation and decision timelines are retained. But the initial application would go first the local authority, with the possibility of an appeal later to An Bord Pleanála.

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The new regime will be tested in real time soon enough. Still, the return of primary decision-making by local councils is welcome. So is the reinstatement of the appeal mechanism. O’Brien says this “should assist” in reducing the number of judicial reviews but objectors should not be confined to the High Court in any event. That forum is prohibitively expensive and the lack of an alternative undercuts theSHD procedure’s time-saving benefits.

Ministers plan judicial review reforms next year, including a new High Court division for planning and environmental issues. They are likely to say the courts should deal only with matters of substance, an argument they could not credibly make without restoring regular planning appeals.