It ‘wouldn’t make sense’ to replace the Land Development Agency when it is on track to become the country’s largest provider of homes, the agency’s chief has told Breakfast Business.
As part of its major new housing plan, Sinn Féin has pledged to scrap the Land Development Agency (LDA) and replace it with a new ‘Active Land Management Agency,’ focused on acquiring unused zoned lands.
The new agency would likely be handed greater powers to quickly compulsory purchase land and make it available for housing.
On Breakfast Business this morning, LDA Chief John Coleman said the agency has “an awful lot to offer” in its current form.
“We've built up a critical mass now and a momentum that we think is difficult [to reach] and it doesn't make sense to do anything to interrupt that momentum,” he said.
“We have 200 staff that do nothing but think about and deliver housing all day long; they are totally focused on that, which is a key factor and it's hard to assemble an organization like that.
“Also, most critically, we've a number of development projects that are actually under construction, about to go into construction or will be in construction in the very near term.
“So that's a really good momentum and I think it's going to make a meaningful difference.
“The LDA is on track to be the largest house provider [or] house producer in the country within the next couple of years.
“So, we think that's a major asset for the for the State and that's how we would set out our stall to anyone that's in government.”
Major developments
Mr Coleman said the LDA currently has around 20 major sites “advancing through various stages of the development process”.
That is in addition to its work assisting private sector housebuilders with the development of large-scale lands.
Mr Coleman said the LDA’s new plan for the redevelopment of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum will deliver 934 new homes in the area – up from the 852 that were originally planned.
Objections
He said the plan has been seriously delayed by a judicial review taken out by a single member of the local community.
“So we received about a year ago planning permission for about 852 homes on that site,” he said.
“On the last day that one could lodge a judicial review, a judicial review was lodged.
“We consulted extensively with the local community, to deliver a scheme that was inclusive to the local community with about three hectares of open space that would be publicly accessible and, unfortunately, we just received one complaint from an individual – no challenges from community groups or anything like that.”
Dundrum
He noted that people have a right to take out judicial reviews against planning applications – but admitted, “it's set us back in terms of time frames and has delayed us for sure”.
“I can't imagine anywhere that is in more need of affordable homes than the Dundrum area,” he said.
“So that was disappointing; however, we dusted ourselves off and we're challenging the legal action in the courts but we're also taking a twin-track approach to lodge a new planning application in conjunction with the local authority.
“We've 934 homes that we've applied for there and if we get planning permission through on that, say, early next year, we could be putting diggers on that site towards the end of 2025.”
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