The Government still seems to be "making it up as it goes along " on the delivery of affordable housing, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
Michael Bannon, former professor of urban and regional planning at UCD, hit the nail on the head yesterday when he said there was "the equivalent of lorry-loads of housing policy reports which argue against segregation, one-class housing and, most of all, the danger of creating social ghettos, out of sight and out of mind".
He was debating with trade unionist Des Geraghty on RTÉ Radio's News at One programme the Government's latest initiative to accelerate the supply of affordable homes by establishing a new housing partnership agency, under Geraghty's chairmanship, to work with local authorities and the private sector towards this end.
To underline its importance, this initiative was announced by the Taoiseach himself at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' annual conference in Belfast, rather than by his elder brother, Noel Ahern, the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal, whose pronouncements on affordable housing inevitably carry less weight.
The forum, too, was significant. For it was in the current social partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress, that the Government pledged to increase the supply of affordable housing by 10,000 units and to "ensure that the necessary actions are taken before the end of this agreement to secure the achievement of this objective".
That agreement runs out at the end of this year and no amount of guff from either of the Ahern brothers, or from Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, can cloud the fact that actual delivery on this key social objective has not only been pathetically inadequate, but also compromised by the evisceration of Part V of the 2000 Planning Act.
Under Part V, as originally drafted, housebuilders were required to allocate up to 20 per cent of every residential development site for "social and affordable" housing, aimed at catering for the growing number of first-time buyers who found themselves priced out of the market by spiralling property values, particularly in Dublin. The measure was specifically designed to promote social integration.
"We have paid a very high price for all the ghettos we've created because of segregationist policies in the past," said one of the senior officials involved in drafting the legislation. "The only way this can be tackled is through planning, because the market won't do it".
When Fingal County Council sought to build 24 "social and affordable" homes in a field in Sutton, it was vigorously opposed by local residents, as Tim O'Brien reported in April 2004. "In more than 150 letters to the council, residents raised issues of security, safety, fears of 'anti-social behaviour' and the arrival of 'undesirables' in their midst."
Knowing how socially prejudiced many of its customers are, the building industry was almost apoplectic about Part V and made its opposition known in public and in private; the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races was one of the places where big builders button-holed Ministers to make clear their dissatisfaction with the measure.
They found a sympathetic ear in Martin Cullen, who took over from Noel Dempsey as minister for the environment in June 2002. Indeed, "what to do about Part V" was one of the first things to which he turned his attention and, in November that year, he introduced an amendment allowing builders to pay financial compensation instead.
Cullen's introduction of this "buy-out" option in 2002 intensified horse-trading between local authorities and housing developers over the implementation of Part V, turning the aim of achieving more social integration into a tool to lever cash for councils; indeed, that's what lay behind the proposed rezoning of land around villages in Co Laois.
The initiative announced yesterday will lead to even more horse-trading, as the State barters sites in public ownership for "x" number of homes on newly-built housing estates, more often than not located on the urban edge.
Who's to decide on the value of these sites and how this can be measured by the homes being swapped for them? At yesterday's press conference, Dick Roche was asked about the pilot land-swap deal involving a site at Harcourt Terrace, in the city centre, for 193 homes in three locations - two in Clondalkin and one adjoining the City West business park. How was the figure of 193 arrived at? The Minister couldn't really say.
The only plus appears to be speed. Though the Harcourt Terrace site is more than likely to be developed for another "exclusive" block of apartments, the local authorities will be able to lay their hands "almost immediately" on 193 homes in a state of virtual completion, to be allocated to lower-income people who would qualify for them.
And though Roche stressed that these "affordable" homes were being provided on housing estates aimed at the private market, thus ensuring a measure of integration, Michael Bannon said there was a "very strong case for ensuring those in social need are housed in and close to city centres, not out in the far distant suburbs". In other European countries, it is widely recognised that people with "essential skills" - such as plumbers, teachers, even waiters - should not be priced out of living close to where they work.
What's needed in Ireland, as the National Economic and Social Council has said, is "a clear vision of high quality, integrated, sustainable neighbourhoods that are worth building". The NESC report on housing, published last December, finally seems to be having an impact on public policy; certainly, Des Geraghty intends taking it on board.
But despite the initiative announced yesterday, there is still no indication here of the clear focus which the British government now has of developing sustainable communities that are "active, inclusive and safe, well-run, environmentally sensitive, well-designed and built, well-connected and thriving", for the most part on brownfield sites.
Even in the wake of projections by the Central Statistics Office that the State's population could rise to five million by 2021, the Government still seems to be "making it up as it goes along" - which is the very opposite of planning.