At every turn, the Minister for Housing has put the interests of big developers ahead of those struggling to buy an affordable homes
It is utterly unacceptable that thousands of affordable homes will be lost because of an exemption for developers contained in the Minister’s new housing plan, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan.
“The Housing For All plan includes measures to increase social and affordable homes in new developments from 10pc to 20pc – except, if a developer bought land between 2015 and 2021.
“The Department of Housing has refused to say whether or not it sought any legal advice to justify this exemption, which will lead to the loss of 10,000 affordable homes. This is not good enough.
“The Supreme Court has previously found in favour of Part V and found that the legislature acted constitutionally when setting planning rules of this nature in the public interest.
“I am calling on the Minister for Housing to clarify if legal advice was sought by his Department regarding this exemption and I am calling on Minister O’Brien to publish any such advice.
“Right now, we need to build as many affordable and social homes as we can. The requirement for 20pc of new developments to be social and affordable homes should never have been reduced to 10pc in 2015. Now that it has been restored, it must be implemented in full without exemptions. There cannot be an opt-out for large tranches of land simply because they were bought since 2015.
“At every turn, the Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien, has put the interests of big developers ahead of those struggling to buy an affordable home. This decision is just the latest in a long line of pro-developer policymaking.”
8 September, 2021
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