The Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 (the Act) introduced new streamlined arrangements to enable planning applications for strategic housing developments (SHDs) of 100 housing units or more, or student accommodation or shared accommodation developments of 200 bed spaces or more, to be made directly to An Bord Pleanála (the Board) for determination.
From the commencement of the new SHD arrangements in 2017 up until end March 2021, the Board had received 308 SHD applications and had decided 265 cases. The Board had granted permission in 192 cases in respect of a total of 49,291 housing units (comprising 12,991 houses, 27,816 apartments and 8,484 build to rent), as well as 769 shared accommodation units and 12,173 student bed spaces under the SHD arrangements. I understand that the remaining 73 cases decided have either been refused by the Board or are developments which were originally granted by the Board but set aside as a result of a judicial review.
The specific information sought in relation to the bedroom size of each unit is not maintained by my Department. The 2017 SHD Regulations provide for the publication of a weekly list of applications received and applications determined or otherwise disposed of by the Board in relation to SHD cases. These weekly lists are available to view on the Board's website at http://www.pleanala.ie/.
Arrangements have been put in place by all bodies under the aegis of my Department to facilitate the provision of information directly to members of the Oireachtas. This provides a speedy, efficient and cost effective system to address queries directly. The contact email address for An Bord Pleanála in this regard is oireachtasqueries@pleanala.ie.
Furthermore, the status of individual developments which have been granted permission under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, is not routinely maintained by my Department given that some 30,000 planning permissions are granted nationally on an annual basis. My Department has conducted periodic research on the activation rate of SHD permissions and the most recent data in this regard, from a review undertaken on 27 April 2021, would indicate that as of end March 2021, works have commenced on 62 (32%) of the SHD permissions granted since the arrangements came into operation. There can be some delay for various reasons, such as phasing of development, in the activation of housing developments post the granting of permission. In this connection, if permissions granted in 2020/2021 are excluded from the calculations, the data indicates that works have commenced on 46% of the SHD permissions granted in 2018 (when the first permissions were granted) and 2019.
The Programme for Government - Our Shared Future commits to not extending the SHD arrangements beyond their legislative expiry date of end December 2021, which has now been extended to 25 February 2022 arising from the Covid-related extension of duration of statutory deadlines within the planning system by 8 weeks in respect of the period March to May 2020.
Work is ongoing on the development of new legislative proposals for the wind-up of the current SHD arrangements and the submission of large-scale housing planning applications (including student accommodation) to local planning authorities. It is intended to publish a General Scheme in this regard as soon as possible.
