Call to ensure developers of large-scale housing projects not obtaining planning permission to turn a profit
Planners have called for local authorities to be given additional powers to ensure that the developers of large-scale housing projects are not merely obtaining planning permission for the purpose of 'flipping' the sites and turning a profit.
The Irish Planning Insitute (IPI) also told the Dáil's Housing Committee that the responsibility for deciding on large-scale housing and apartment developments should be restored to local authorities and not be carried out by An Bord Pleanála.
Since July 2017, applications for planning permission for housing and apartment developments of more than 100 units and student housing developments of more than 200 beds are made directly to An Bord Pleanála.
Construction has started on less than half the approved schemes, prompting TDs and Senators at the Housing Committee meeting to described the system as "fundamentally flawed".
IPI chairman, Joe Corr, called for the powers to be restored to local authorities and said that they should be allocated additional powers and staff to develop "planner-led delivery teams" to monitor sites which have approval but have yet to commence work.
He said: "We would advocate a use-it-or-lose-it approach if landowners/developers are in the mind that their SHD (strategic housing development) is something they can speculate on - we believe that a site value tax is one measure in a number that would ensure delivery into the housing system."
