Sinn Féin unveiled it’s housing policy today calling for the right to housing to be enshrined in the Constitution, tax measures to promote social housing and the establishment of a housing Ombudsman.
The party’s policies include community involvement in the planning of new housing, better maintenance and security on local authority schemes, a ban on gazumping and the introduction of penalties for property speculators.
Sinn Féin's housing spokesman, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD said the government’s market-driven housing policy had failed. He said the Government had relied totally on the market and the "profit motive" of developers and the construction industry to provide housing. He said that "social need and not market forces must drive housing policy."
Sinn Féin estimates 140,000 people are unable to secure a home, and Mr Ó Caoláin argues that only the sort of concerted effort that reformed the whole economy in the past decade will work now.
Sinn Féin's "12 point plan" for housing includes:
1.Enshrine the Right to Housing in the Constitution.
2.A National Housing Strategy and a National Housing Agency to co-ordinate housing provision.
3.State-led initiative in partnership with financial institutions such as credit unions to allow lower income earners to purchase their own homes.
4.Increased funding of local authorities to provide housing with a target of supplying suitable accommodation within two years for 70% of applicants on the waiting lists.
5.Increase in Capital Gains Tax on speculative owners of multiple dwellings, introduced on a phased basis over two years.
6.Statutory ceiling on price of land zoned for housing to stop speculation and reduce house prices. Compulsory Purchase Orders on landowners sitting on land banks and derelict property.
7.Direct community involvement in planning for housing. Legislation to ensure that social needs are incorporated in all housing schemes from the earliest stage.
8.Single streamlined funding scheme for voluntary and community housing.
9.Rent control in the private rented sector and enforcement of enhanced legislative protection for tenants.
10.The establishment of a Housing Ombudsman's Office.
11.An integrated strategy for homelessness with a target of 70 per cent reduction within two years.
12.Suitably tailored housing provision for those with special needs such as people with disabilities, women at risk, asylum seekers, Travellers, students.