A HOME OF YOUR OWN

Delivering Homes

Ensuring the delivery of 300,000 new homes over five years, including 125,000 public homes will be an enormous challenge. It will require not only significant public and private investment, but significant reform to our planning system, to how we manage land and to how we tackle vacancy and dereliction. It will require using our construction sector work force better while growing that work force. 

Most importantly it will require a completely new approach to coordinating the various public, semi-state and private agencies involved in the delivery of critical infrastructure, public services, housing, economic development, and public amenities. It will also need improved data to assist evidence-based policy making as well as training and development in housing policy and delivery for the sector generally.

Housing Delivery Oversight Executive

Sinn Féin supports the key Housing Commission recommendation to create a Housing Delivery Oversight Executive. The Commission’s proposal is not to add another layer of bureaucracy to the housing delivery process. Rather their intention was to advocate for a statutory mechanism to bring together those public, semi-state and private bodies currently involved in the delivery of housing and related infrastructure to better coordinate their capital programmes and address blockages in the development process with greater urgency.

In Government, Sinn Féin would establish the Executive immediately on a non-statutory basis while preparing the necessary legislation. It would have a state-wide remit as set out by the Housing Commission to align government housing strategy with infrastructure delivery, support and coordinate a strategic and integrated plan-led approach to housing supply.

In line with the Housing Commission’s recommendation for the Executive to prioritise and coordinate the implementation of high yielding Housing Delivery Zones, it would also have a key function in driving priority development zones including existing Strategic Development Zones, new Urban Development Zones or large-scale projects such as City’s Edge in Dublin, Poolbeg West SDZ, Waterford North Quays and South Dock Cork.

Sinn Féin would prioritise both the establishment of the Executive and the passage of the legislation following an expedited consultation with all of the relevant stakeholders and the members of the Housing Commission.

There is also a role for similar coordinating structures at a regional and Local Authority level, including a cross-border dimension, to ensure proper coordination of housing delivery and related infrastructure, public services, economic development and public amenity. This will also be incorporated into the legislation.

Planning Reform

Sinn Féin’s ambition in Government is not just to deliver homes but to build communities. To achieve this, we need a planning system that enables the public, semi-state and private development sectors to meet the social, economic and environmental needs of our society.

We need a well-resourced planning system to deliver high quality plans at a state, regional, county and local level and to do so at pace. We also need a well-resourced planning system to ensure good quality planning decisions are taken in a timely manner following meaningful public participation.

Much of our planning system works well. The vast majority of planning applications are approved by the Planning Authority (87% in 2022). Only a small percentage are appealed to An Bord Pleanála (7% in 2022) and an even smaller number being subsequently challenged in the courts (4% of appeals, 0.28% of applications)

However, decades of under resourcing of our Local Authorities, An Bord Pleanála and the courts service has meant that too often it takes much too long for planning decisions to be made. Likewise bad legislation by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments has created a planning system that is complex and adversarial.

Sinn Féin wants a planning system that works and in Government we would make the following reforms to achieve these ends:

• Agree and fund a multi annual workforce plan for the entire planning system with sanction for over 500 additional staff in Local Authority planning and building control posts, an additional 50 staff for an Bord Pleanála and 3 additional full time planning and environmental judges on the high court.
• Introduce statutory time-lines for all stages of the planning process and provide a statutory underpinning for high court practice guidelines on timelines for judicial review decisions.

• Review the statute of the Planning and Development Bill 2023 and only progress those elements of the legislation that we believe will improve the planning system.
• Amend the Planning and Development Act related to the provision of housing for people with disabilities and for Travellers.
• Amend the Planning and Development Act that support the transition to a low carbon, built environment.
• Prioritise amendments to the Planning and Development Act to address issues of vacancy and dereliction and introduce a one stop shop to assist the development of over the shop and other commercial premises for residential use in cities, towns and villages.
• In order to support people to live and work in rural, island and Gaeltacht communities, publish as a matter of urgency the draft rural planning guidelines, draft Gaeltacht planning guidelines and draft planning guidelines for the islands and undertake a meaningful public consultation on all three with a view to having the agreed guidelines enacted within 12 months. The guiding principle for all three sets of guidelines will be not only to halt population decline in our rural, island and Gaeltacht communities and to support population growth in these communities in a manner that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
• Publish a summary of the report into certain planning matters in Co Donegal known as the Mulcahy Report and implement any recommendations arising from the report as appropriate.
• Upgrade the Housing Needs Demand Assessment tool to allow for more evidence-based planning policy and decision making at all levels including state, local authority, local electoral area and district electoral division. 
• Fund a number of participative planning pilot projects through a number of Local Authorities 

The significant increased resourcing and reform of the planning system will require a multi annual work force plan. In Government Sinn Féin would work with the Local Government Management Agency, An Bord Pleanála, the Irish Planning Institute and the Town Planning Institute and the various third level institutions to put in place a strategy for training, recruiting and retaining the appropriate level of staff in our planning authorities. 

Land Management

Delivering 300,000 new homes over five years will require a completely new approach by Government to the management of land. Ensuring that 125,000 of these are public homes to meet social and affordable housing need will also require a significant pipeline of land for our Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies.

To achieve this the state needs an Active Land Management Agency, focused solely on the issue of strategic management of public land, and where appropriate intervening in the private land market to ensure an adequate supply of public land, and to stabilise a private market prone to speculation and instability.

The National Planning Framework, published in 2018, called for the creation such an agency to “co-ordinate and secure the best use of public lands”, and “to drive the renewal of strategic areas not being utilised to their full potential.” However, when the Land Development Agency was established later in 2018 its focus had changed to a state-wide residential developer. One of the consequences of this decision was that the LDA had neither the legal powers nor the singular focus to fulfil its land management function.

In Government, Sinn Féin would transform the Land Development Agency into the Active Land Management Agency. The residential functions and assets of the LDA would be transferred to the Local Government sector, in the form of an off-balance sheet Designated Activities Company owned by the Local Authorities in which the LDA properties are situated. 

This will allow the Active Land Management Agency to focus solely on land supply and activation without causing any disruption to the current pipeline of developments and contracts currently underway within the LDA. The Active Land Management Agency will be given comprehensive compulsory purchase order powers including the power to purchase undeveloped residentially zoned land at existing use value as part of a wider reform of CPO legislation.

The immediate actions of the transformed agency will include:

• To conduct a full audit of all Local Authority land either zoned for housing or suitable for such zoning and to identify the land deficits in each Local Authority set against the agreed Local Authority public housing delivery plans.
• To conduct a full audit of all unused or under used public land held by Government agencies and semi state agencies that could be used to fill some of the land deficits identified in the first audit and make recommendations to Government with respect to the transfer of this land to Local Authorities for the purpose of public housing.
• To conduct, in partnership with the Office of the Planning Regulator an assessment of the volume of all residentially zoned land in the existing City and County development plans and to identify deficits that may exist to achieve the overall target of 300,000 new homes by 2029 and make recommendations to the Minister with respect to possible development plan variation requests to the relevant Local Authorities.
• To conduct an audit of all residentially zoned land in SDZs and other formal plans that is not being developed with a view to identifying possible sites that could be subject to the Existing Use Value Compulsory Purchase Order procedure.

The Active Land Management Agency will continue to be funded through capitalisation from the Strategic Investment Fund including any uncommitted LDA funding at the time the residential functions are transferred to the Local Government sector. Any committed funds at the time of transfer of the residential functions will be transferred to the Local Authorities DAC. 

Where the Active Land Management Agency supplies land to Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies the cost of this land will be covered by the land element of the Public Housing Fund payments from the Department of Housing.

Once the Active Land Management Agency has completed these functions and is in the process of ensuring Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies have the necessary pipeline of land the Agency will have the power to intervene more broadly in the private land market.

They can do this either to acquire land for public housing or to acquire, plan and service land in strategically important locations for commercial lease or sale, where private development is not forthcoming or is unduly speculative in nature. Profits raised from such market transactions will be recycled into their public housing land programme. 

It is important that the transition from the LDA to the Active Land Management Agency is as seamless as possible, so that both the existing residential development commitments are not disturbed or delayed and to allow the new Agency to focus on its land functions immediately. 

Vacant Homes

The level of vacancy and dereliction across the state is too high. Sinn Féin believes that tackling this must be a central element of any successful housing plan. Addressing the impact of high levels of dereliction and vacancy plays an important role in meeting housing need. It revitalises our cities, towns and villages. It reduces the volume of carbon emissions from the built environment helping us meet our 2030 and 2050 emissions reductions targets. 

We need the same level of ambition and investment in bringing thousands of vacant and derelict homes and converting over the shop and other unused commercial buildings into residential use. In Government Sinn Féin will increase and accelerate the re-use of existing vacant and derelict residential and commercial buildings to create good quality public and private homes.

How many homes are vacant?

According to the 2022 Census there were 130,469 houses and 32,964 apartments vacant on census night. These figures do not include holiday homes. The number of vacant homes that were empty in both the 2016 and 2022 censuses was 48,000. There were 33,653 vacant private rental homes in 2022, representing 7% of the rental stock and 1 in 5 of all vacant homes. 

There were 17,472 homes classified as ‘For Sale’ representing 11% of all vacants. There were 23,205 properties vacant for the purpose of renovation representing 14% of the total. And 27,000 properties were recorded that the former residents were deceased.

There were also 11,000 properties vacant because the residents were in a nursing home or hospital and a further 5,018 where they were with relatives.

In addition to the Census data, there are quarterly reports from GeoDirectory, a service created by An Post and Tailte Éireann, that maps residential and commercial property.

Their most recent report identified 81,000 residential properties and 30,000 commercial properties as vacant at the end of 2023. 

While this data has some value, it does not give us an accurate picture of how many residential and commercial buildings are vacant and derelict, the reasons for their vacancy and whether they could be reasonably brought back into use as social, affordable or private homes. 

Any credible plan to address the unacceptably high levels of vacancy and dereliction must start with an effective methodology for counting and sharing data on vacancy and dereliction.

A Vacancy & Dereliction Platform

In Government Sinn Féin will establish, as a matter of urgency, an on-line platform detailing all vacant and derelict properties in the state. This platform will be developed by the Department of Housing and GeoDirectory. It will not only include information on the size and location of properties, but distinguish between types of vacancy (sites, dwellings, buildings), conditions of buildings (habitable, minor/substantial repairs needed, derelict/rebuild needed), owners of buildings (individual, commercial, government agency); reasons for vacancy, (probate, fair deal, sale, refurbishment), and land use/zoning categories.

This database will be available to all local authorities, the Housing Agency and other proscribed bodies. It will be the foundation on which the Government vacant and derelict homes strategy will be based.

A Vacancy & Dereliction Unit

In order to ensure a dedicated focus on tackling vacancy and dereliction a Vacancy and Dereliction Unit will be established within the Department of Housing from existing staff. The unit will work with GeoDirectory, the Housing Agency, the City and County Managers Association and where appropriate professional advice from organisations including the Society of Surveyors of Ireland and the Royal Institute of Architects. The Unit will oversee the delivery of the Platform, drive the implementation of the various measures below and report in writing and in person bi-annually to the Oireachtas Housing Committee.

Re-Use Targets

As part of the Department of Housing’s five-year public housing delivery programme, Local Authorities will agree with the Department the portion of their delivery programme to come from vacant and derelict buildings. 

These targets will be ambitious and will be published as part of the public housing delivery programme and updated annually and as improved data on vacancy and dereliction becomes available. 

Funding Reform

Local Authorities will be able to draw on their Public Housing Fund capital allocation both for the purchase and renovation of vacant and derelict properties. 

The Department of Housing, in consultation with the Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland, will also compile indicative costings for refurbishment to guide local authorities as part of their annual review of the unit cost ceilings for public housing new builds and acquisitions. These will be updated annually.

Vacant and Derelict Property Refurbishment Grant

The Vacant Property and Refurbishment Grant will continue to be administered by Local Authorities. The scheme will be reformed to target those households eligible for affordable housing and payments to registered contractors will be paid directly by the Local Authority in stages as work is completed.

Planning Reforms

Increasing and accelerating the number of vacant and derelict homes brought back into use will require changes to the planning system.

These will include:

• Legislating for a one-stop-shop planning and compliance service in every Local Authority to make it as easy and cost efficient for individuals, Approved Housing Bodies and Local Authority Housing Departments to secure the necessary change of use planning, planning for internal alterations and compliance certificates, or where necessary exemptions from certain forms of certification.
• Reforming the planning code to require applicants proposing demolition to justify this course of action as the best use of the building, structure or land. Empowering Planning Authorities to refuse requests for demolition where in the opinion of the Authority the reuse of the building or structure is a better option based on both planning and embodied carbon criteria, taking viability into account.
• Empowering Planning Authorities to apply recycling conditions to demolition permissions to ensure that where appropriate building material can be reused or recycled, either on the development in question or elsewhere in the supply chain for building, taking viability into account.
• Making it easier for organisations and individuals to apply for and Local Authorities to grant “meanwhile-use” use of existing vacant buildings, with a particular focus on community and cultural activities.

Compulsory Purchase Order Reforms

In Government Sinn Féin would introduce a comprehensive reform of the Compulsory Purchase Order process. The current process is based on legislation passed before the foundation of the state and is universally recognised as too slow and too expensive, particularly for the delivery of much needed critical infrastructure. 

These changes along with the introduction of Existing Use Value CPOs will make it easier for Local Authorities and others to acquire vacant and derelict homes and commercial properties to bring them back into residential use. 

Taxing Vacancy

While there are legitimate reasons why some properties can be left vacant for periods of time, Sinn Féin does not accept that in the middle of the deepest housing crisis in modern history, tens of thousands of potential homes lie empty for no good reason. In addition to empowering Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and individual purchasers to turn these vacant and derelict properties into homes, we believe that it is necessary to have strong policies in place that disincentivise speculative vacancy.

The current tools in place, namely the Local Authority Derelict Sites Tax and the recently introduced Vacant Property Tax, are poorly designed, badly implemented and do not work. In Government Sinn Féin would transfer responsibility for the Derelict Sites Levy to Revenue. The new Vacant Sites Tax would be set at 7% in year one after the transfer and increase by 50% for each year the site was left vacant. 

We would also increase the Vacant Property Tax to 1% of the market value of the property and increase it annually by 50%. Holiday homes, homes in the Fair Deal Scheme and in probate would be exempt. The purpose of these two taxes is not to raise revenue but to incentivise owners of vacant or derelict properties to either use, rent or sell the properties.

Review of Existing Schemes

There are currently a number of schemes in operation aimed at tackling vacancy and dereliction including the Buy and Renew Scheme, the Repair and Leasing Scheme, use of URDF funding and targeted use of CPO.

The Department of Housing Vacant and Derelict Property Unit should undertake a short review of all of these schemes and present recommendations to the Minister to either discontinue or reform the schemes.

Review of Oireachtas Housing Committee report

In May 2022 the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing Planning and Local Government published a report on Urban Regeneration. The report was based on a number of public hearings dealing with how best to tackle vacancy and dereliction. The report made 39 specific recommendations.

As part of their review of existing funding programmes for tackling vacancy and dereliction the Vacancy and Dereliction Unit of the Department will also review the report, recommendations and Joint Committee’s hearings on Urban Regeneration and present a report to the Minister setting out their recommendations for possible further action.

Workforce Planning

The number of people working in construction has been rising since 2019 according to the CSO’s Labour Force Survey, from 145,000 people in Q1 2019 to 171,000 in Q1 2024. Delivering Sinn Féin’s ambitious housing plan will require the construction sector to grow further. However, it is also our view and that of many people in industry that more homes could be delivered by the existing work force if other barriers to delivery were addressed.

The last time the constructor labour force was of a similar size was in Q1 2004, when there were 165,000 people employed in construction. 2003 saw the construction of 68,000 new homes and 2004 saw a further 78,000 new homes built.

While any comparison with 2004 must consider different building standards and a much weaker building control regulation, it is still clear that we should be building more new homes with the workforce that we have.

To achieve this, we need to ensure that barriers identified elsewhere in this plan are addressed including in the approval and procurement of public housing, resourcing and decision-making timelines of the planning system and the coordination of critical infrastructure. Addressing this issue would allow for both an increase and acceleration of public and private housing delivery by the existing workforce.

We also need to ensure that the builders we have are building what is most needed, namely affordable homes. This means ensuring that planning policy and tax policy are aligned to ensure social, affordable, and private for purchase residential developments get priority over other forms of development such as data centres, aparthotels or high end built-to-rent apartment schemes. 

Combining all of this with a significant increase in public investment in social and affordable homes will allow the development trajectory as set our earlier in this plan. However, to get beyond those delivery targets will require a significant increase in the number of people working in construction and related professions. The Housing Commission have made a number of key recommendations in this regard which Sinn Féin believes form the basis for growing a highly skilled and well paid construction workforce.

In particular in Government Sinn Féin would:

• Ensure adequate funding for the third-level education sector to ensure a pipeline of people with high quality construction related qualifications. 
• Attract workers by ensuring construction is a stable and viable sector with high quality employment. 
• Update a forecast of skills requirements regularly.
• Ensure teachers and guidance councillors are aware of the career options in construction and students have access to information. 
• Substantially increase the number of apprentices in training including in the public sector.
• Review and increase renumeration levels for apprenticeships, particularly in years 1 and 2. 
• Support apprentices by abolishing fees and increasing travel and accommodation expenses during off-site training. 
• Address backlogs in apprenticeship training to ensure apprentice can qualify on time. 
• Leverage public procurement to increase apprentices recruitment.

There is also a need to grow the new building technology sector through prioritising low carbon building technology in public procurement and through a dedicated framework agreement for the use of new building technologies in the delivery of public housing.

Sinn Féin also believes that there is a need to tackle the issue of bogus subcontracting in the construction sector. In partnership with trade unions and industry bodies we would set out a five year plan to achieve this specific objective.

Data, Research & Learning

Housing policy should be evidence led. To achieve this we need high quality, reliable and up to date data on all aspects of public and private housing delivery. It is widely recognised that our housing policy data is at best patchy and too often politicised by Government.

To overcome this in Government Sinn Féin would take the following actions to ensure that Government along with the public, semi-state and private sector development sectors have the best quality data, research and training.

• Establish a Housing Policy Data Hub consisting of the Housing Agency, the ESRI, the RTB, the CSO and relevant housing policy specialists from universities to agree methodologies and publish housing related data on a regular basis
• The Hub would be tasked initially with reviewing and independently publishing data on homelessness, housing commencements, housing completions and private rental tenancies.
• The Hub would also be tasked with a specific review of all housing related Census questions in advance of the next census and make recommendations on how best to improve this.

The Hub’s work would be produced and published independently of the Department of Housing. In addition to improving the quality of housing data Sinn Féin also believes that it is necessary to improve the educational opportunities for people working in housing policy and delivery as a career.

In Government we would work with the relevant universities to develop post graduate programmes in housing policy and delivery, combining an interdisciplinary approach along with practical experience and international best practice. The post graduate courses would offer Masters and PhD programmes in a number of housing policy and delivery specialisms.