Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 October 2018
258. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if the focus of the Land Development Agency is not to provide social and affordable housing on public land on a scale to stem the tide of homelessness (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40527/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra260. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if the primary purpose of the Land Development Agency is to use prime publicly owned land to generate housing in the private market to meet demand in a growing economy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40577/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 258 and 260 together.
The recently established Land Development Agency will act as a new commercial State body to actively manage the development of public land in a way that will make a major contribution to tackling the root causes of our current housing issues, including bringing about major new opportunities for additional social and affordable housing on public lands.
The new agency has access to an initial tranche of 8 sites with significant potential to add a further pipeline of public sites that have near term delivery potential for 3,000 new homes and an additional potential for 7,000 new homes. Of this total of 10,000 new homes, 4,000 are intended for delivery as additional social and affordable homes and the balance as additional new supply to meet the high levels of demands in the wider housing sector for housing for both rental and purchase purposes.
The agency has a potentially very significant role to play in not only addressing the pressures in the housing sector in the short to medium term but in the longer-term to enable the urban development objectives of the National Planning Framework to be realised.
In addressing the above, the new agency therefore has two primary objectives:
- To ensure the optimal usage of State lands, coordinating their regeneration and development and opening up key sites not being optimally used, especially for delivery of new homes; and
- To drive strategic land assembly through mechanisms that will bring together both public and private sector interests in ensuring the timely preparation and release of strategic land for development in a counter-cyclical manner. Such counter-cyclical action will be aimed at stabilising any tendency towards volatility in development land values, securing more of the increase in such values as a result of the planning and infrastructure investment processes for the common good and thereby driving increased affordability through better and more cost-competitive land availability.
To support the work of the Land Development Agency, the Government has agreed new policies requiring that a minimum of 30% of public lands coming forward for redevelopment and/or disposal are to be reserved for affordable housing purposes (in addition to the statutory requirement for 10% social housing under the existing Part V provisions).
These new policies will ensure more housing supply at more affordable prices and rents, while at the same time securing the delivery of sustainable and mixed tenure communities in a balanced manner across the various social, affordable and market housing elements of the overall housing sector, all of which require enhanced supply.
