Fast-track zones for new housing

The Government is to create a number of new Strategic Development Zones (SDZ), in which housing developments will be fast-tracked through the planning process. The SDZ provision, which mirrors that already approved for the creation of industrial development sites, is the major plank of the Bacon strategy to deliver 20,000 homes in the Dublin mid-east region annually over the next five years.

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said strict criteria would be laid down for SDZ designation: "they will not be spread willy-nilly about the country".

Landowners whose land comes into the SDZ will see additional roads and services, such as electricity, gas and water being put in place but will face a withholding tax of £3,000 per dwelling unit on land where a planning application has not been made within 12 weeks. The £3,000 per tax also comes into play if the scheme has not commenced within 26 weeks of approval.

A second aspect of the strategy will introduce incentives and taxes to encourage builders to switch operations from country areas to the greater Dublin area, and to take speculators out of the housing market.

In this regard, Mr Bacon said he wanted to stress that genuine landlords with long-term commitment to the private rented sector were not being targeted and would be exempt from some of the provisions of the report, such as property tax and increased stamp duties.

While there is to be no appeals process against housing development in SDZs, the Bacon report maintains that questions of land use, transportation, servicing, and social infrastructure should be decided "in detail" at the outset of the planning process.

At the publication of the report, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the Government would ensure that the infrastructural investment - roads, water and transport - would be fasttracked but "housing can not be separated from other investment decisions . . . about schools and health services, about locations for industry."

The Taoiseach said the measures in the Bacon report would create the conditions for increasing the supply of new houses to a level of 55,000 per year over the next five years. They would stabilise the market by reducing speculative demand and would improve house affordability by focusing on first-time buyers. He said a programme announced by the Department of The Environment to coincide with the measures would greatly enhance the supply of affordable housing.