The demand for housing is great. My job is to effect real change sooner rather than later, writes Martin Cullen
This Government is committed to providing social and affordable housing in a fair and equitable manner, ensuring real social integration in communities. We know the demand for housing is great. As Minister, my job is to effect real change sooner rather than later.
The only way to ensure that houses are affordable for all is to increase supply. Last week I published a Bill which will amend the parts of the planning code that deal with the supply of social and affordable housing. The changes proposed will remove obstacles to the supply of housing and enable the housing list to be tackled.
Let me be clear - the 20 per cent provision for social and affordable housing remains.
The challenge of matching the need for more housing with the objective of building real social integration in our communities has to be addressed. I believe passionately that this Bill meets that challenge.
One of my main priorities in bringing forward this Bill is to avoid losing planning permissions for close to 80,000 houses over the next 13 months. Losing 80,000 houses at a time when people are in greater need of housing than ever before is something that we can ill afford to ignore.
It is right that housing developers make a contribution to the provision of social and affordable housing and this Bill confirms that. The aim is to remove obstacles; to ensure a continued high level of housing output of all types, private, social and affordable. However, the Government does not have the luxury of time.
This Bill will make two separate changes to planning legislation. Firstly, it will restore the life of the planning permissions of those 80,000 houses. Under the 2000 Act these permissions were due to expire early, after only two years instead of the normal five years, starting from December 31st next.
In return for extending the duration of the permissions affected, developers must make a once-off contribution towards funding social and affordable housing.
The new legislation provides that a levy must be paid in respect of each house for which permission would have expired. It should be emphasised that it is not a levy on all houses built in the future, just those the planning life of which is being restored. The levy will be 0.5 per cent of the cost of a house with a value less than €270,000 or 1 per cent of the cost of a house with a value equal or greater than €270,000. The levy will raise vital once-off funding for local authorities which will be ploughed directly back into house building.
Payment of the levy will be a condition of the planning permission for each house and will be the responsibility of the developer. The Bill prohibits that the cost of the levy be passed on to the purchaser.
The other change proposed is to give new options to local authorities and developers to comply with the social and affordable housing requirements.
At present, developers are confined to providing land within the proposed development to the local authority or providing houses or sites within that development.
In addition to these existing options, the applicant for permission will now be able to reach an agreement to reserve land or provide houses or sites at another location; to make a payment to the local authority which will be used for the provision of social and affordable housing; or to agree to a combination of any of these options.
In managing these proposals, local authorities will have to consider a number of important issues, central of which is social integration.
Social integration is about ensuring that everyone in the community, from all income levels, of all ages are represented, going to the same shops and the same schools, benefiting from the same community facilities and the same transport links.
In Britain, developers negotiate with local authorities on social and affordable housing provision. This has resulted in greater volumes of low-cost and social housing and greater social integration. This Bill aims to achieve a similar result.
MISTAKES of the past will not happen again. The days of large urban areas, the centre and periphery of which feature decaying tenements and local authority housing estates, populated by the very poor are over. Likewise, the idea of the suburban middle ground as the exclusive preserve of the employed and educated has no place in today's urban planning.
We should not lose sight of our achievements. The Government is proud of its record on housing. Since 1997, our efforts have brought greater stability to the market with moderation in the rate of price increase and substantial rise in output. With 52,602 houses completed, 2001 was the seventh year of record housing output.
Output continues to increase in 2002, with marked rises in the Dublin area. Local authority housing output this year will be the highest for 16 years. Increased housing output and the return of the investor to the market earlier this year has assisted in increasing the supply of rented accommodation in the private sector and moderation in rents.
The transformation of the Irish economy coupled with the change of our social fabric has had a major impact on housing. No longer are we dominated by unemployment and emigration. More people than ever before are living and working in Ireland. However, Ireland has fewer houses in relation to our population than any of our EU partners. More young people and other social factors are driving up demand for housing. As a result, the pressure on supply is more immediate and urgent than ever before.
It is clear that the existing arrangements are too rigid and bureaucratic. Planning authorities and developers are experiencing difficulty in drawing up agreements, thus holding up housing supply. All the while, demand grows. Firm action is needed now to deliver necessary change.
I am not interested in self-indulgent rhetoric from those who seldom bear any responsibility for the implementation of practical solutions to our urgent housing problems. The focus of Government is on delivering real solutions and that is what this Bill is about.
Martin Cullen TD is Minister for the Environment & Local Government