Every local authority and utility company must be engaged to deliver more land for housing.
That’s according to director of housing and planning at the Construction Industry Federation Conor O’Connell, ahead of a meeting of the Irish Home Builders Association today.
“Today is a big day, not just because of the housing summit that we’re organising, but also because the revised National Planning Framework, which is the top tier of planning policy in Ireland, is now going before the Cabinet today for approval,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.
“What we’ve been told that will mean is that pretty shortly, the Minister will be instructing local authorities right throughout Ireland to re-examine their county development plans.
“Within the county development plans is where their land zoning objectives are placed, and we’ve been saying for a long time that those land zoning objectives are based on the census from 2016, which is completely out of date at this stage.”
The National Planning Framework has not yet been made available to the public, but Mr O’Connell said there are already concerns that it is not ambitious enough.
Stock picture of housing in Lexlip, Co Kildare taken from a Helicopter.He also said that infrastructure issues are making the purchasing of land “extremely difficult”.
“We’re at a situation at the moment where the capacity register maps for both the ESB National Grid and also Uisce Éireann have changed significantly over the last number of months,” he said.
“There’s zero per cent capacity in relation to some substations in the eastern region.
“Uisce Éireann capacity register maps have gone from green to orange, meaning that in the Dublin and eastern region, there’s significant capacity constraints in our infrastructure.”
According to Mr O’Connell, the focus over the next number of months - “if we’re serious about housing supply” - will be on local authorities and utilities companies to deliver more land and infrastructure.
Main image: A new housing development in Dublin, © PA Archive/PA Images
