Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 February 2018
614. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the status of Government policy on the use of development levies in encouraging construction levels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5530/18]
View answerDevelopment contributions provide critical resources to facilitate the provision of essential public infrastructure and facilities that support the implementation of local authority development plans.
My role as Minister with regard to development contributions is to provide the necessary statutory and policy framework within which individual development contribution schemes are adopted by each local authority. The adoption of these schemes is a reserved function of the locally elected members of each planning authority, and it is a matter for the members to determine the level of contribution and the types of development to which they will apply.
I am satisfied that the existing statutory and policy framework in this regard strikes the right balance between ensuring a transparent and broadly consistent levying of development contributions across the country, while also affording each local authority sufficient flexibility and discretion in the application of development contributions within their own respective functional areas.
Stimulating residential construction activity through targeted interventions on development contributions has already been examined by my Department. In this regard, a development contribution rebate scheme was announced in November 2015, the primary objective of which was to enhance the viability of the construction and sale of residential housing units at affordable prices in locations of greatest need.
Take-up under the scheme was however relatively low, and it has since been overtaken by the introduction of the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund, LIHAF, which is designed to provide upfront enabling infrastructure to open up strategic lands for early development. Under Phase 1 of the fund, 29 projects have now been approved across 14 local authorities with a total value of €177 million, with the potential to facilitate the delivery of up to 18,000 new homes from these sites over the coming years. I expect a further project, involving €20m of investment supporting 2,000 new homes, to be approved shortly. A further Phase 2 of the Fund will be launched later in Q1 this year, with a further €65 million available to open up more residential sites for development.
Further initiatives in relation to development contributions are being considered in relation to delivering on the “compact urban growth” objective set out in the draft National Planning Framework, particularly in the context of appropriate levels of contributions for infill or brownfield redevelopment, where many of the infrastructural services are already in place.
