Ireland

Dempsey urged to 'call the builders' bluff'

The president of the Irish Planning Institute has called on the Minister for the Environment and Local Government Mr Dempsey …

Cathal Hanley
Mon May 28 2001 - 01:00

The president of the Irish Planning Institute has called on the Minister for the Environment and Local Government Mr Dempsey to "call the builders' bluff" in their attempts to avoid providing social housing.

Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 says each local authority must, by August 2001, adopt a housing strategy and include in its development plans a provision that up to 20 per cent of either the development land or houses developed on the land be made available forsocial and affordable housing purposes.

All planning permissions granted between August 1999 and August 2001 have a life of two years.

The IPI's president Mr Philip Jones said the two-year limit ensures builders would not seek to frustrate the operation of the new social housing provisions.

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But the house-building sector is now seeking to have the two-year limit removed, Mr Jones said.

He said planners have seen a rush of planning applications submitted over the last year or so by the house-building sector in order to avoid the social and affordable housing provision.

Instead he asked that a mechanism be provided to remove uncertainty for those builders who are prepared to live up to their social responsibilities.

Mr Jones said it was time developers and builders saw themselves as part of the general community and worked for the interests of everyone, not just their own profits.

But the Irish Home Builders' Association responded by calling the planning institute's views seriously flawed.

"The comments made todayby the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) in relation to the two-year withering of planning permissions is seriously flawed and reflected a lack of understanding of what is actually happening," according to Mr Ciaran Ryan, director of the Irish Home Builders' Association (IHBA).

He said the IPI has acknowledged the difficulties and uncertainties this measure has introduced. "It has directly lead to a slow down in housing supply.A drop of 17 per cent nationally and over 30 per cent in some areas in the level of housing construction has already occurred," said MrRyan.