Developer slams housing plan: 'We could be doing so much more'
Vivienne Clarke
“We could be doing so much more,” developer Michael O’Flynn has said about the rate at which houses are being built in Ireland.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with David McCullagh show about the Government’s new housing plan, Mr O’Flynn warned that there was no point in talking about the numbers being mentioned in the plan “if we don't change how we are doing things.
“And I mean change. Because when I look at our pipeline, we could be doing so much more than we are and I'm speaking for another lot of other house builders and I am delighted that funding is going to be made available across the industry for different scale of builders, but when they suggest, and the land development agency is doing a very important job at this moment in time and we're certainly one of many developers working with them, but all of a sudden they've been told they're going to get involved in the whole market.
“These are big statements, but I do not see how that can happen quickly, I cannot see how we can get to the numbers we have, unless there is a serious reset.
“We need a reset of minds. And we need a reset of action. That has to happen. This report in itself won't do anything. I want to see how is it going to be done, who's doing what, what are the changes in zoning, infrastructure.”
'Fantastical'
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has described the government’s new Housing Plan as “fantastical”.
It was the same as previous plans, he told RTÉ’s Today with David McCullough show.
“It is fantastical because it's based on a hope that if you incentivise private speculators and developers, builders enough, you will hope they will build, but the State itself has very little control over what is actually built.
“And that's even true of the social and affordable housing targets, which are slightly increased. But most of that, certainly going on previous experience, and I suspect will be the same, they're hoping they will get from private developers a portion of what they build. And if they don't build, we don't get it.
“And if you actually look at local authority housing. And what's been built, it's only been about 3,000 houses a year. We have 120,000 people on housing waiting lists and yet for the last eight years there's been an average of only 3,00 additional local authority houses built. So the state isn't doing what it should be doing is building houses itself.
“That's why we have been calling for several years for the establishment of a state construction company where the State has its own capacity working with local authorities to build social and affordable housing on their own land. And similarly, they need to do something about rents.”
State agencies
Minister for Transport, Climate, Environment and Energy Darragh O’Brien has said that it was important to ensure that “all the agencies of the State are pointing in the same direction” when it comes to delivering new homes.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr O’Brien, a former Minister for Housing, said that “deliverability” was key and that it was impossible to go from delivering 20,000 new homes a year to 60,000 new homes per year.
When asked about the different responses from various local authorities, the Minister said “we need to make sure that all the agencies of the State are pointing in the same direction".
The government makes policy, but it was up to the agencies of the State to implement those policies, he added.
Mr O’Brien said he was confident that the new Housing Plan would accelerate delivery of new homes.
