State bodies are set to face increased pressure to sell sites to the Land Development Agency (LDA), with the Government also considering steps to allow the agency to build more private housing at its projects.
Amid heightened concern in Government over housing output, senior officials are to discuss proposals to reform the LDA’s remit in the hope of increasing the number of homes it is delivering.
It is understood that the agency’s focus on social and affordable homes on large sites will be on the table for discussion, with some in Government of the view that more private homes should be built at these projects.
There is also significant frustration over the pace of transfer of lands to the LDA from State bodies, with Government sources of the view that it is happening too slowly, that there is a lack of co-operation and often there are too many conditions attached to transfers of land.
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Officials will consider challenges for the LDA in obtaining sites from commercial State bodies because it has no power to compel these bodies to offer the lands for sale. Ministers are set to discuss these issues at a meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on housing this Thursday.
Government sources cite the ongoing transfer of lands at Leopardstown controlled by Horse Racing Ireland as an example of a project where progress has been bogged down. One source suggested that statutory time frames within which lands must be transferred could be considered.
The LDA has identified 32 publicly owned sites with the potential to deliver up to 15,000 homes in the next seven years.
[ State missed its target for delivery of social homes in 2024 by almost 20%Opens in new window ]
Fine Gael sources said that party was strongly of the view that the LDA could do much more if its remit was broadened. Tánaiste Simon Harris recently instructed his Ministers to prepare proposals on housing with urgency, focusing on steps that would have a high impact on delivering homes.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said on Sunday that “the big social issue of our day is housing”, pointing to the establishment of a new strategic housing activation office and a new division in the Department of Public Expenditure looking at infrastructure.
However, the Opposition was critical over the weekend of the expected salary for the Government’s preferred choice to lead the new office - dubbed the “housing tsar”. The coalition wants Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh for the role, with expectations that he would retain his current salary of €430,000 annually.
Government sources said they want the LDA to do what it was originally planned to do - make optimal use of State lands and develop them for new homes and to drive the assembly of land, bringing together the public and private sectors.
“There would have been an expectation that the LDA deliver more than it has - it is the right approach but it hasn’t delivered as much as hoped so far and it’s looking at why that is the case,” one Coalition source said.
The Cabinet subcommittee on infrastructure will also meet on Monday, where Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers will tell Ministers that personnel will imminently be appointed to the new infrastructure division in his department.
The government wants to identify and remove blockages in project delivery, and a review of international best practices has been commissioned which will study other common-law countries, including the UK, and different US states such as Texas and California. The International Monetary Fund and the OECD will also be consulted.
The review is to be delivered by June and will examine planning and legal issues, but also administrative burdens and EU requirements.
The committee will also examine the multibillion-euro MetroLink project planned for north Dublin, including the hope that it will support the delivery of more than 30,000 homes along its route.
