Wicklow development plan will mean shortage of new homes, say builders

Two of the Republic’s biggest housebuilders are challenging the Wicklow county development plan in a case many other local authorities could watch carefully.

Dublin-listed Cairn Homes and Glenveagh Properties confirmed on Thursday that they had begun judicial review proceedings — where a High Court judge scrutinises a public body’s decision — against Wicklow County Council over its development plan.

The builders say the plan obliges the council to cut the number of new homes built in the county by 45 per cent to 8,467 between now and 2028 compared with the previous six years.

“Therefore, due to this newly-imposed ceiling, there will be capacity for approximately 7,000 fewer homes in Wicklow over the six years of this plan than was available under the previous plan,” the firms said.

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As a consequence, the council could have no alternative but to refuse or restrict planning on serviced sites zoned for new home building, they warned.

Cairn and Glenveagh argued that the development plan seriously underestimated Wicklow’s population growth as it uses out-of-date figures from Census 2016.

Wicklow’s 2022-2028 development plan complies with the National Planning Framework, whose projections are based on the 2016 census rather than the one that the Central Statistics Office completed earlier this year. Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien will review the framework in the second quarter of next year in light of Census 2022′s findings. He has indicated that this could lead to councils zoning more land for new home building.

Sources on Thursday predicted other councils would watch the Cairn/Glenveagh case carefully, as its outcome could have implications for other development plans based on the same national framework.

Cairn chief executive Michael Stanley said that it “makes no sense” to significantly cut the number of new homes built in Co Wicklow.

Glenveagh chief executive Stephen Garvey said the plan should be based on current rather than historic data.

Wicklow County Council did not comment.

Both companies are active in the county, which is popular with buyers, in part because it is close to Dublin. Cairn is currently selling from developments in Greystones and Delgany.

Glenveagh will shortly begin selling at a development in Ashford and recently sold out another in Greystones.

Implementing the development plan will hinder efforts to build new homes, Mr Garvey warned.

“This shrinking of capacity will further exacerbate the housing crisis and is the opposite of what homebuyers need for affordable housing,” he said.

Mr Stanley pointed out that the need for housing had never been greater following a decade of undersupply.

“This is not good for Ireland and not good for Wicklow,” he argued. “We are a decade into a housing crisis and a generation of Irish citizens are being shut out of the housing market.”

The National Planning Framework has been under fire for some time. A recent study by property firm Savills warned that it could aggravate Dublin’s already serious housing shortage.

Research from stockbrokers Davy on Thursday noted that Co Wicklow’s population grew 9 per cent to 155,500 between 2016 and 2022.