Vol. 508 No. 1
601 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on the proposal contained within the Kenny report to allow the courts to determine a reasonable price for land for residential development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17987/99]
The question appears to be based on a misunderstanding of the Kenny report recommendations. The majority Kenny report recommended that development land which had been serviced or was due to be serviced by the local authority would be designated by the High Court and that the cost of the acquisition of such land by a local authority would be determined by reference to its existing use value plus 25 per cent. The majority Kenny report recommendations were put forward in different circumstances to those which exist today and it should not be assumed that the Kenny Committee would recommend the same approach in today's circumstances. The Kenny Committee's principal concerns related to the large increase in land value due to the servicing of the land by the local authorities at the expense of the community. Today, developers pay a much greater part of the cost of the infrastructure required to facilitate development through development levies for water, roads, sewerage, etc.
The constitutionality of the Kenny report recommendations was questioned in a minority report and a joint Oireachtas committee in 1985, which received cross-party support, decided that the issue was best dealt with by other means.
Part V of the Planning and Development Bill, 1999, aims to achieve a better balance between supply and demand for houses by ensuring an adequate supply of building land to meet the housing needs of the area. Local authorities will be required to prepare housing strategies to provide for all the housing requirements in the area. The housing strategy will include a specific policy that a specified percentage, which cannot exceed 20 per cent, of residentially zoned land will be reserved for the provision of social and affordable housing. A condition of the grant of planning permission for the development of land with such an objective will be the transfer to the local authority of the specified percentage of land at its existing use value rather than a value based on residential zoning. Where such land was purchased before the publication of the Bill, the compensation will be based on the actual price paid. I believe that the approach in Part V is a balanced, equitable and proportionate response to today's housing needs.
