Local authorities are exaggerating the need for affordable housing and leaving homes unoccupied in estates in many areas, a developers' representative body has told the National Social Housing Conference.
Senior executive of the Irish Home Builders Association Noel O'Connor said there was a lack of trust between local authority officials and developers and a "suspicion" among developers that some county and city councils did not even have affordable housing waiting lists.
Speaking at the Irish Council for Social Housing's national conference in Wexford yesterday Mr O'Connor said claims that developers were shirking their responsibilities to provide social and affordable housing under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 were wrong.
"The common perception is that developers are opposed to Part V; that is not true. What we have difficulty with is the differing interpretations by local authorities of the legislation."
There were "significant differences" between local authorities and the way in which they interpreted the legislation and a "lack of transparency" in the way affordable homes were allocated, he said.
"Many houses are completed and vacant for long periods of time leading to the suspicion that affordable housing lists are not in place in many areas, and if they are there is a very slow process of letting people know of the availability of a house."
Greater clarity was required as to the actual affordable housing need as some people were being placed on the list when they could afford private housing.
"We have trainee accountants qualifying for affordable housing where clearly they will be earning enough money to afford a private house in the future."
Allowing people in such a position to go on lists was merely distorting the level of housing need and denied access to those who were in "real need" he said.
"We believe that need is being exaggerated and by exaggerating the need, those who will, long term, be on relatively low incomes are being denied access to affordable housing. Exaggerating the need is no justification for demanding more."
Also speaking at the conference was RTÉ presenter and architect Duncan Stewart who said 90 per cent of houses in the State will have to be upgraded to meet environmental standards. "We are going to have left a major problem behind us in relation to what we built in the Celtic Tiger time . . . that reality was going to come back to haunt us."
A huge reduction in fossil fuels used to build and run houses was needed to avoid the impending fuel poverty crisis he said.
"Poor people are going to be the ones most vulnerable to what's coming and it will be left to local authorities, housing associations and co-operative organisations to pick up the pieces."
Upgrading and retrofitting houses costs 10 times more than adding energy saving measures at construction stage, he said.
