Vol. 515 No. 3
71 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the proposals, if any, he will bring forward to overcome the difficulty being experienced by local authorities in acquiring land for housing at a reasonable cost due to competition from the private sector. [6010/00]
The Planning and Development Bill, 1999, will fundamentally strengthen the role of local authorities in meeting the housing needs in their areas, including the need for social and affordable housing. Part V of the Bill will require each local authority to prepare, as part of its development plan, a housing strategy which must provide for the current and future housing needs in its area, including the need for social and affordable housing. The Bill requires local authorities to ensure that sufficient land is zoned for housing needs for the period of the development plan and that a specified percentage, not being more than 20%, of such land shall be made available to the local authorities at existing use value for the purposes of social and affordable housing.
Separately from the provisions of the Planning and Development Bill, local authorities are being encouraged by my Department to acquire the land required to meet the social and affordable housing output targets identified in the national development plan and more particularly to meet the target of 22,000 housing starts in the multi-annual local authority housing programme for the period 2000-03. The Housing Finance Agency assists local authorities with funding for land acquisition. The cost of any land acquisition, including holding charges incurred for up to five years, used for the development of local authority housing is funded by the housing capital allocations from my Department. My Department also meets the cost of loan charges relating to land acquired by a local authority to provide houses under the local authority affordable housing scheme. The subsidy is payable for a maximum period of three years or until the houses are constructed and sold, whichever is the lesser.
