The Coalition needs to mind its language on housing. A few weeks ago senior Ministers were claiming that the Government had turned a corner in addressing the crisis. Over the Easter weekend, the Taoiseach amended this to being on “the cusp of changing”. Neither version is convincing. The Government can claim to have set some important new policies in train, but a real turnaround is not in sight.
In some ways this is just politics. Governments are under pressure to have solutions to every problem. Opposition parties always claim that they could do better. Just as the Coalition’s claims are questionable, so too are the statements by Sinn Féin and others on the Opposition benches that they could transform the situation.
However, language is important too – in setting the political framework for debate and sending signals to those involved in policymaking and in the housing sector. And a message that the problem is on the way to being solved does not convey the necessary sense of urgency about the progress that still needs to be made. It suggests a clear line of vision ahead and this does not exist.
Building did pick up last year, but unfortunately a much higher level of housing provision is needed. And whoever is in power will face the same problems – in planning, in a shortage of resources in the building sector, in rising costs and increasing interest rates. A stalling, or fall-off, in housing completion is threatened. The recent – and welcome – levelling off of house prices is most likely largely due to higher interest rates and not more supply, as the Government is claiming.
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The message voters need to hear is that the Government is sparing no effort in addressing the crisis. That it is committed to implementing reform of the planning regime and resourcing it adequately. That it is eagerly awaiting the report of the Commission on Housing due over the summer. That it can manage the required acceleration of policy action while also engaging with voters about where housing policy is going. If, instead, it keeps on claiming that victory is close, its credibility in this vital area will continue to suffer.