LDA plans for cheap homes already facing residents’ bid to block them
JUDICIAL reviews taken by residents determined to prevent social and affordable homes being built on their doorsteps will cause massive delays to Government plans to tackle council waiting lists, experts have warned.
A source familiar with the planning process told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I know some groups are already organising to take judicial review cases and they have decided on that course of action even before they have seen a single planning application.
‘A judicial review case can cause a serious delay… it can hold up building for months and this is going to be a real problem for all those affordable housing schemes if something is not done about it.’
This stark warning comes as a new State agency prepares to turn the sod on its first-ever building scheme within months.
The Land Development Agency (LDA) this week confirmed it will have secured enough land by the end of the year to build 10,000 new homes. It has been given €1.2billion by the Government’s Strategic Investment Fund to build homes. And the State agency plans to boost its coffers by borrowing as much again so that it will have €2.5billion to spend.
And although building work is due to start on two of its first projects by the end of the year, it is expected that it will be another two years before families are able to move into the 10,000 new affordable homes.
LDA boss John Coleman revealed: ‘Later this year we intend to commence construction of 600 social and affordable homes on our first project at Shanganagh,
Co. Dublin, and we have a pipeline of sites coming on stream in the near term to deliver around 4,000 homes.
‘Additional land capacity and targeted projects will take that number to 10,000 homes subject to master planning of the longer lead developments, with further potential from our strategic sites in Cork Docklands, Limerick Colbert Station and Sandy Road in Galway.’
All of these new homes will be built on State-owned sites. And instead of handing over these vast tracts of land to private developers, the LDA will develop these sites themselves by employing builders.
Crucially, most of the LDA homes will be set aside for people on council waiting lists and those struggling to buy their own home.
The most recent statistics show that 61,880 families are on waiting lists throughout the country for housing provided by local councils and 16,832 of these families have been waiting more than seven years for a home of their own.
This does not include all those renting from private landlords who cannot afford to buy their own property because they are being priced out of the market.
According to experts, at least 33,000 new homes need to be built each year to keep up with demand. The independent thinktank, the Economic, Social and Research Institute, believes 33,000 new homes must be built every year to deal with the crisis.
But a report commissioned last year by the Irish Institutional Property group – which represents property investors – claimed that as many as 47,000 new homes need to be built
annualy over the next five years.
However, the Government’s target of 25,000 is almost half the number of homes that property investors insist are needed.
And its goal is well below the annual estimate that experts at the ESRI have advised.
Meanwhile, the process is already under way to select a builder for the LDA’s first scheme in Shanganagh on Dublin’s southside. Up to 597 homes will be built on the land owned by the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and 200 of these will be set aside for families on the council’s waiting list. The remainder will either be rented out or else sold off at affordable prices to private homeowners. As many as 300 of these 597 new homes will be rented and, according to the LDA, these rents will be 35% less than the going rate on the open market.
Last month, planning permission was granted to build an additional 266 homes on the former St Kevin’s hospital site in Cork and it is expected the first sod will be turned before the end of the year.
Other sites earmarked by the LDA for social and affordable homes include the 50-hectare site at Colbert Station in Limerick, the former Devoy Barracks in Naas, and the 11.3-hectare Central Mental Hospital site in Dundrum.
A planning application was lodged last month to build 221 houses on the Naas site, but permission has yet to be sought for the Central Mental Hospital and Colbert Station sites.
The LDA can avail of so-called fast-track planning by submitting planning applications directly to the national planning authority An Bord Pleanála without having first to seek approval from local authorities. However, objectors can opt to take High Court action by taking judicial reviews.
And those familiar with the planning process predict some of the LDA’s ambitious building plans will be hampered by delays as judicial review cases make their way through the courts.
The legislation giving the LDA its legal status is making its way through the Dáil. Under the proposed law, councillors would not be able to vote on whether council land should be transferred to the LDA. This proposal has prompted a backlash.
But this week, LDA boss John Coleman tried to reassure local politicians saying his agency will not ‘pillage your land’ adding: ‘It is only through collaboration we can make opportunities turn into reality. Our approach won’t change in that respect.’