LandbanksDespite industry scepticism, the Government insists there is almost 15,000 hectares of zoned, serviced land being stockpiled, writes Tim O'Brien

The Government is adamant that there is enough land for almost 500,000 new homes, already zoned, serviced and ready-to-go.

The construction industry, however, has scoffed at the notion. With zoned and serviced land its life blood, its traditional approach has been to champion more rezoning.

Last month the Government decided to up the ante and declared its intention, if re-elected after the summer, to finally introduce "use it or lose it" provisions that would see zoned, serviced land become the subject of compulsory purchase - at less than its development value - by local authorities. The provision first recommended in 1973 by the Kenny Report on the availability of housing land provoked a strong response from the Construction Industry Federation which called for details of where the great landbank is located.

Now the Department of the Environment has done just that. While the latest figures date from June 2005, the Minister for the Environment Dick Roche argues that not even our building boom could have wiped it out in 18 months, while significant additional lands have been serviced in the interim.

In fact the evidence, according to the department, seems to indicate that, despite the building boom, the amount of available land is actually rising.

In the greater Dublin area, for example, the figures reveal that in June 2004 there were 3,125 hectares of zoned, serviced land. This was suitable for 134,638 new homes.

However, despite unprecedented construction activity, the position one year later was that the amount of zoned, serviced land had risen to 4,174 hectares, suitable for 183,922 new homes.

And the pattern of stockpiled land appears to have been repeated across the State. Department of the Environment figures reveal that Cork county and Waterford city had enough zoned and serviced residential land to keep building for another five years. In Galway city and Limerick county it was said to be four years; in Galway county it was under three, as it was in Cork city.

Co Clare and the Fingal administrative area of Co Dublin featured highly with 1,091 and 1,287 hectares respectively.

This was enough land to build 30,395 and 45,049 houses respectively.

Local authorities which had comparatively little zoned, serviced land were Leitrim with 71 hectares, and Roscommon with 89 hectares.

Announcing the proposed "use it or lose it" provision, Roche said it would affect zoned, designated land which the owners had failed to develop or to allow be developed. Roche ruled out paying the full development value for undeveloped land. "It would be less than the development value. I don't want to overly reward people for sitting on it," he said. The measure would, he said, be a "significant financial incentive" to owners of designated land to see it developed.

But the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has already hit back claiming, in a large number of cases, lands identified as being "ready-to-go" cannot be developed. Reasons include the failure to prepare and adopt local area plans, and delays arising because of the failure to align the zoning and servicing of lands with the delivery of strategic infrastructure. "Analyses of the returns for the greater Dublin area, for instance, clearly indicate that the returns are not an accurate reflection of lands that are ready-to-go, but rather a calculation of lands that are zoned residential. There is a significant difference in many cases," said CIF spokesman Martin Whelan.

He insisted the data provided by the department "does not provide an accurate basis for calculating the actual quantum of residentially zoned lands available for development. It is not accurate to suggest that lands that are zoned are ready for development when clearly this is not possible because of problems, such as services and local area plans."