The Coalition Government's performance on housing has been a shambles. And last week's announcement that State land will be provided for the construction of affordable homes should be treated with caution.
Of course, anything that alleviates the plight of first-time home-buyers is to be welcomed. But the Government's aspiration to provide 10,000 such homes during the three-year partnership programme, "Sustaining Progress", is likely to be dogged by planning, zoning, administrative and other delays. A more sober assessment by local authority officials is that 400 affordable homes will be built within two years in Dublin, and others at a later date.
The focus on affordable housing at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' conference in Tralee suited both trade union officials and the Taoiseach. Otherwise, they might have had to explain in detail the economic and social justification of benchmarking awards at a time of cutbacks in public services. As it happened, the announcement that 309 acres of State land will be given over for the construction of affordable housing secured the limelight. And Mr Ahern said that specific proposals on further land transfers will be submitted to Cabinet in the autumn.
The package of State land contains only 11 acres where construction can begin at an early date. The remaining sites, at McKee Barracks in Co. Kildare and at Gormanston, Co. Meath, will require changes to county development plans and the provision of significant infrastructure before development can occur. It is not an impressive initiative, given the demand that exists for cheaper housing and the Government's recent failures in that regard.
Earlier this year, the Coalition buckled under pressure from the building industry and changed a legal requirement whereby 20 per cent of all new development sites had to be set aside for social and affordable housing. That requirement had been upheld by the courts and was used effectively by Fingal and other county councils to provide low-cost housing. Builders are now being permitted to offer financial compensation to councils instead of housing. And, because of the financial shortfall facing local authorities from benchmarking, managers are likely to embrace this option. So, while the supply of social and affordable housing is likely to dry up at council level because of Government action, relatively small amounts of State land are being provided as an alternative.
This near-schizophrenic housing policy has been marked by the implementation and subsequent abandonment of various Bacon reports. Regulatory pressure was put on builders to provide more homes while, at the same time, a 60 per cent punitive tax on hoarded development land was scrapped. Tax breaks on rental income were abolished and then reintroduced. Through it all, the cost of housing moved beyond the reach of average income earners. And the number of families on local authority waiting lists rose to 48,000. This is the Government's legacy. Tricking around with small parcels of State land will not change it.