Government housing policy will “reward land speculation” says Hearne

Social Democrats TD and housing spokesperson Rory Hearne has criticised a new government proposal to allow developers to extend planning permission beyond five years.

Hearne said the plan would reward land speculation.

The Dublin North-West TD noted “in the dying days of the last government, the Planning and Development Act was signed into law – the legislation is more than 900 pages long; we were told at the time that this mammoth piece of legislation dealt with planning issues comprehensively. Yet, the first piece of legislation that the new Housing Minister has brought forward is yet another tweak to planning law.”

“Despite passing the third largest Act in the history of the State late last year, the government managed to omit a planning reform it now deems necessary,” he noted.

“I have major concerns about extending planning beyond five years for a further three. Land speculation, in which developers get planning permissions and sit on them, so land values increase, is a huge issue.”

“In fact, the last government shared those concerns. It was supposed to introduce ‘use it or lose it’ measures in relation to planning but never did.”

Hearne called the new government move it’s latest “sop” to developers, and will only succeed in extending planning permissiones even further

“Today, the Oireachtas Housing Committee will hear from both the ESRI and the Central Bank, which will outline the level of disaster in housing; according to both, the government is on course to miss its housing targets yet again by a huge measure.”

Hearne criticsed what he calle “tinkering around the edges.”

“Removing rent caps and letting rents rip, will not solve this crisis; it will just cause further misery and exacerbate this disaster,” he said.

“What we need is a radical reset of housing policy and an emergency response to this crisis.”