Sir, – In his discussion of the housing crisis, James O’Toole (Letters, November 18th) suggests that none of the political parties are addressing the infrastructure gap which is hindering modern methods of construction (MMC) and discouraging private-sector investment in housing delivery. I would urge James to read the Labour housing manifesto; in it we set out very clearly how we propose to bridge the gap through significantly increased State investment and the development of regional housing executives. This would enable far greater use of MMC and would facilitate greatly increased levels of delivery of social and affordable homes, particularly when taken together with our proposal to transform the Land Development Agency into a State construction company. Ensuring that the public sector can bear the risk of funding costly residential construction up front, at a time when private companies are simply unable to do so, simply makes sense. Our housing manifesto also represents the “radical reset” of construction policy that the outgoing Government’s own Housing Commission has recommended.
This is our Labour vision for constructive change to address the housing disaster, and it would make a real difference. – Yours, etc,
IVANA BACIK,
Labour Party Head Office,
Dublin 2.