The general election date remains unknown, but already Sinn Féin, the main Opposition party, has published what it hopes will be a central part of the debate. Its housing plan is a detailed document, proposing to increase the role of the State in housing provision and push up overall building levels to around 60,000 a year on average.
Whoever is in Government, State intervention in housing, already significant and rising, is set to grow further. Sinn Féin promises to spend what it says is an additional €4 billion a year above current Government plans, meaning less would go into long-term official saving funds. For this to add up, taxes will need to remain strong.
The election housing debate will rest in part on the ideas of the different parties, but also on who voters trust to deliver. A key concern is the slow pace of housing delivery, but accelerating this will not be easy. Effecting change requires major reforms of the current administrative and governance system, as well as of the planning regime.
Sinn Féin proposes a range of significant changes including an increased role for local authorities, measures to try to increase building on State land and a new model of affordable housing provision. Focusing on supply, it proposes to phase out the Help-to-Buy scheme and end the newer First Home scheme, in which the State takes an equity stake.
The Irish Times view on the Sinn Féin housing plan: setting out its stall for the general election
Housing fight for Sinn Féin will be convincing voters to ditch Government schemes
Sinn Féin unveils €39bn housing plan promising 300,000 homes over five years
Sinn Féin’s €39bn housing plan: affordable homes from €250,000, freezing rents and 300,000 new units in five years
Its full policy programme is an important addition to the housing debate, which will soon enter full swing as a likely election date of mid-November draws closer. In some areas – such as supports for buyers – it differs fundamentally from the Coalition’s. In others, it is proposing significant administrative and regulatory reforms in the way things are done, to try to speed delivery. Achieving the promised level of change in time to deliver on its targets would be a key issue for Sinn Féin.
The Government will respond that its programme is working, with a lift in housing provision over the past couple of years. In some areas it has made progress. In others, such as building on public land, execution has been painfully slow.
This is partly the result of broken planning and regulatory regime, a barrier which will face whoever is in government The debate here between the Government’s proposed reforms in its new planning Bill and Sinn Féin’s ideas, including on compulsory purchase, will be important. The rights of those in need of housing are, in too many cases, taking second place to those objecting to developments, in a system which has become far too slow and legalistic. Politicians on all sides have been only too willing to side with the objectors.
All the parties will promise to “build” tens of thousands of homes. But credible policies must be systemic – focusing first on the underlying fundamental problems, rather than promising “quick fixes”.