Developers will not have to transfer ownership of any apartments or houses to local authorities for social housing under new planning legislation which has passed through the Dáil.
The Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill was intended to stop city and county councils accepting cash from developers in lieu of social housing in any new development.
However, under the terms of the bill, developers will not have to sell property to the local authority but instead can offer leases on homes.
Previously, under part V of the Planning Act, developers had to set aside 20 per cent of a residential scheme for social or affordable housing, which local authorities could buy at a discount.
The councils could accept a payment if they didn’t want the units.
Last October, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly said developers would no longer be able to “buy their way out” of social housing obligations, but would only have to provide 10 per cent of housing to the local authorities.
However, the new bill allows that requirement to be fulfilled through “long-term leasing” instead of through the sale of units.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said this would make the housing crisis worse, not better.
Ownership
“The Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill includes measures that will allow developers to make vast profits out of leasing social housing to councils instead of transferring those houses into the ownership of local authorities.
“So if housing applicants ever are allocated a house, which is doubtful, it will not be a council house, it will not be permanent, and they will continue to be subject to the whim of private landlords.
Mr Boyd Barrett was speaking following the publication of new figures from Dublin City Council that show that more than 42,000 people are on the waiting list for social housing.
People Before Profit city councillor Bríd Smith said the Government must initiate an emergency house building programme to end the reliance on private landlords .
“There has been a policy, going back to 2006, of pushing back the building of housing by local authorities and this is another policy decision driving housing out of the control of local authorities and into the private market.”
Problems
Housing campaigner Fr Peter McVerry said housing and homelessness were the biggest social problems facing the State.
“This crisis is not being adequately addressed, I’m not sure it has even been recognised as a crisis .”
As an immediate measure, he said rent supplement caps needed to be increased and rent controls introduced, before the Dáil summer recess.
“If this was an outbreak of foot and mouth, the Dáil would not be going on holidays, but there is no sense of urgency about this.”
Housing campaigners will be protesting outside the Dáil when it returns after the summer break.
Separately, Lord Mayor of Dublin Críona Ní Dhálaigh said she has been unable to secure a meeting with Mr Kelly on housing and homelessness, despite the Minister having agreed to meet her.
“As the Dáil prepares for its summer recess I am extremely worried that this problem will be kicked down the road until mid-September,” she said.
A spokesman for Mr Kelly said he would arrange the meeting as soon as his diary permitted.
