Planning for Communities

Well, we now have the numbers.

There are 33,000 vacant units across the State, according to the National Housing Development Survey and an additional 10,000 units under construction.

It’s not much consolation to families living in unfinished estates, but I had thought the figure would be higher.

At the height of the boom we were building 90,000 units per year, and last year the figures were around 25,000.Even at this lower output figure the amount of vacancy is less than two years supply.

I suspect the housing units close to our main towns and cities will be occupied sooner than other developments. Just last week in Booterstown in Dún Laoghaire empty apartments were being snapped up at bargain prices, albeit at a massive discount. The units furthest away from where the new jobs are will be the more difficult to sell. Certainly the blanket use of tax designations in entire counties was flawed. It was naive at best to assume that property based tax incentives could lift all boats in economically depressed areas.

Someone suggested at last week’s Irish Planning Institute Conference that we had seen the end of apartment building and a return to the semi-detached house. I doubt it. I think what we will see is an end to the badly-designed slapped-up so-called ‘luxury developments’ surrounded by a sea of car parking in a field that was owned by someone who knew someone three miles down the road. That can only be a good thing. The new planning laws promote well-designed buildings in the appropriate location. We’ll see more mixed-use developments; terraced housing, and well-insulated homes closer to shops, schools and the workplace. That can only be a good thing.

Many of the empty housing units will eventually come under the control of the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA), and the survey information will be of benefit to the NAMA as well as to Planning Authorities. We’re putting in place a Housing Expert Group chaired by John O’Connor of the Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency. Their first job is to approve a Manual prepared by planning and housing experts in the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government within the next few weeks that will assist agencies in managing the legacy of unfinished and empty housing units.

We need to be careful not to see empty housing units as a neat solution to local authority housing waiting lists. Many of these developments weren't designed with the needs of vulnerable housing clients in mind. Hopefully the lessons of 'sink' estates have been well and truly learnt by now. I had a good meeting with Fr. Pat Coogan from Respond a few weeks ago. I asked him what would he do if a hundred empty homes became available. He said he'd take twenty houses and use two of them to provide communal facilities and use the other eighteen as social housing. He'd then sell the other eighty to homesteaders who might purchase the homes for a knock-down price and put down roots in the community. Both groups of residents would support each other. I thought it was a valid proposal, and I'm sure will figure in the discussions that the NAMA and other agencies have over the coming months.

Currently there are strong powers available to the Health and Safety Authority to take action on sites that are still under construction. In addition Councils have powers under the Derelict Sites Act, the Dangerous Buildings Act and Litter legislation. Also, under the 2010 Planning Act we’ve given Councils and residents additional powers to “take in charge” parts of unfinished development. We’ll also be clarifying the powers available to Planning Authorities to use bonds or securities to ensure that works are finished off in housing areas.

If you’re living in an unfinished development chances are you’ve already looked at the plans in the Council offices and compared them to the reality of what’s been built. It’s important to itemise the problems and discuss them with the solicitor who handled the sale. They can advise you on what action to take. The primary responsibility for completion of a development lies with the developer, but if they’re not responding, you should take the issue up with the Council directly. The Manual that is being finalised by the Expert Group will assist Councils in using their legal powers to improve unfinished developments. Over the next few months Council’s around the country will be required to prepare Site Resolution Plans for all unfinished developments in consultation with the Expert Group, the developers, residents and other key stakeholders.

Other Government Departments can use this detailed survey to help them with their work. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation and the IDA can use the data to show prospective employers where there is ready availability of housing . Other Departments such as Education, and Arts, Sports and Tourism may find the information useful in thinking ahead. Some of the dwellings may well find a future as holiday homes. Others may become student accommodation.

From the Green Party’s perspective much of our work has involved reforming the planning system to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated. Over the last year we’ve put in place a “refreshed” National Spatial Strategy, new Regional Planning Guidelines and a new Planning Act. We’ve also put measures in place to protect habitats and water supplies. In addition we’ve witnessed a halt to decentralisation, and a windfall tax on land that is rezoned. The recession has given us an unprecedented opportunity to learn from past mistakes and put in place policies that concentrate the right kind of development in the right locations.

An 80% windfall tax on “up-zoned” land which forms part of the NAMA legislation, dramatically reduces the incentive from land-owners to seek the rezoning of their land. This is as close as we’ve been able to get to the implementation of the 1973 Kenny Report without a constitutional referendum.

Joined-up planning policies have also been a focus of the reforms. Minister Gormley and I have put in place closer links between the National Development Plan and the National Spatial Strategy; Regional Planning Guidelines at the inter-county level , and City and County Development Plans and Local Area Plans at a local level. That may not sound ground-breaking, but if you saw some Local Area Plans you might be scratching your head wondering at to how they reflect national policies.
Most of the provisions of the Planning Act 2010 passed into law a couple of weeks ago. The new law puts an onus on Councils to review their plans within a two year period and ensure that the plan has an evidence-based core strategy. This will lead to a change from the laissez-faire plans of the past which failed to deliver on their stated goals.

Of course there’s also a process of education needed to up-skill elected representatives and officials. The Irish Planning Institute ran a well-attended seminar last week, and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has plans for regional information sessions around the country over the months ahead. In the UK the Royal Town Planning Institute runs a school for councillors back-to-back with their professional conference and I’m hoping to do something similar here.

The Scottish educationalist Patrick Geddes summed it up many years ago in three words – “Survey, analysis, plan”. For far too long we built without connecting these three essential elements.

Now is the time to get things right.

Eleventh Hour

It's late, and I'm tired.

It's been a tough year for the Country, for the Government and for the Green Party.

This week has been one of the most difficult I've faced in my 27 years in the Party. If we don't conclude talks tomorrow morning with Fianna Fáil on transforming the Programme for Government we walk.

I was on Late Date on RTE Radio One earlier this evening saying all of this. It was curiously cathartic to talk about how I felt and outline where things are at. Our team -Mary White TD, Minister Eamon Ryan and Senator Dan Boyle, have had over forty hours of talks over the last eight days with Ministers Dermot Ahern, Mary Hanafin and Noel Dempsey. I don't know if we can reach agreement. From the start we've been emphasising jobs, political reform and eduction as being key areas where we need to transform this government. There's been progress, but the clock is ticking.

Our membership have called a special convention this Saturday in the RDS in Dublin to decide whether or not we stay in government, and whether or not to support the NAMA legislation. We require a two-thirds majority to stay in government. A motion to vote down NAMA and end our participation in government would also require a two thirds vote. The bar is set high to stay. This will be the fifth time this year that members have met to discuss crucial issues for the Party.

The strains and stress take their toll. At a personal level its becoming increasingly difficult to manage the huge demands that are being made on all of us. There's a balance that has to be struck between family life, responsibilities to the constituency, to the Green Party, and to Government. You can never get it all right, but between the normal demands of a Dáil constituency, the responsibilities to attendance and participation in Dáil committees and votes, and the concerns of the Party it can be a mountain to climb. Oh, and I left out the work life-balance part.

I'm trying to be fairly philosophical about it all, but it's not easy. I really believe that green ideas are crucial to getting us through the current economic and environmental challenges. We've got to move Ireland from the boom-bust buildings and big cars fixation into an Ireland that's better planned with a more diversified economy. It'll involve green jobs - in the digital economy, agriculture, renewable energy, sustainable construction and smarter travel. It will be based on confidence in the political system, investment in education and proper planning. There has to be a move to resource taxes, and away from taxes on labour. I believe the Green Party is best placed to help guide, lead and transform politics through the tough decisions that lie ahead for several years to come.

I met someone from the Labour Party today. She talked about how necessary it is to have Green Party as a force in Irish politics, to tackle energy and climate change issues. I also bumped into a Fianna Fáil back-bencher who spoke in desperation about the need to be relieved from the necessity of almost daily funeral attendances of constituents to allow him to concentrate on policy and legislation. The political system requires systemic reforms.

There's a yearning for so many of the ideas that the Green Party brings to the table, whether it be on environment challenges, local government reform, or matters as simple as Safe Routes to School. Its a tough, tough time to be in Government. The John O'Donoghue issue was the straw that almost broke the camel's back for the Greens. I'm hoping that it will act as a catalyst for all of us to reform, and transform the politics of business as usual.

Politics is never easy. I remember having intense debates and rows twenty-five years ago about whether the Greens should be a campaigning NGO or actually contest elections. We chose the latter, and entered a world that is rarely black or white, and that has many shades of grey. Looking back, I think that was the right choice.

I've been on the phone a lot in the past few days talking with Party members. I'm telling them that if we do get a deal that transforms the Programme for Government, then we'll put it to our members on Saturday and ask them for supoport. I'm saying that the NAMA vote is a tough one, but that we have got changes in the Bill, and there are more to come, and that on balance I believe it is the best option to deal with a banking crisis that was not of our making.

A lot depends on what happens over the next 12, and perhaps 48 hours. I'll try and keep you posted.

Doing Nothing is not an Option

1597 pages worth of reports. I'm swamped.

They're coming out my ears, and starting to take over over the desk. 136 pages of NAMA, 388 pages of the Lisbon Treaty, 397 pages of the McCarthy Report and 551 pages of the Commission on Taxation. Oh, and the Kenny Report from 1973, 125 pages: That's a lot of reading.

The current crisis is a huge challenge, but it is also an opportunity to address the 'never again' side to the property bubble. I'm fairly confident that we'll strike the right balance on paying a fair price for the NAMA loans. Improving regulation and ensuring the mistake of 110% mortgages is not repeated is also part of the necessary reforms.

A key challenge lies in removing the incentive to rezone land for all the wrong reasons. Some Planning Authorities around the Country zoned enough land in the last few years to take care of growth for the next 60 years. iIn doing so they accelerated the bubble's expansion , and facilitated sprawl. It is now time to row back on those rezonings and capture the betterment that flows from rezoning decisions. In 2004 the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution (Ninth Report, p143) endorsed Kenny's conclusions from thirty years previously and outlined four mechanisms for recouping betterment: development levies; planning gain; taxation (such as a site value tax) and compulsory acquisition for the public good. If NAMA is approved we'll be going well down the road to implementing the latter, but it was disappointing that the Commission on Taxation recommended an annual property tax rather than a site value tax. Don't get me wrong - I feel a shift away from the boom-time tax of stamp duty on property is long overdue, but taxing rezoned land (as well as property) would be a decent incentive to stop bad rezonings in the first place. However at this stage much of the damage is done, and we should be discouraging future inappropriate rezonings by placing an annual tax on undeveloped rezoned land.

An end to stamp duty on property transactions could encourage people to move to a home that's suitable for their needs, whether it be older persons down-sizing, or younger people avoiding a 70 mile commute by living closer to where they're working. You do need a decent lead-in period, particularly for people who have already forked out chunks of cash on stamp duty in recent years.

There is still an irrational belief amongst local authority members in the major parties that rezoning land will bring back the goose that laid the golden egg f in the years leading up to 2007. Removing the propensity to rezone would allow County Councils to concentrate on providing decent services. Neither George Lee nor Enda Kenny have sufficiently acknowledged the need to rein in the rezoning tendencies of their more maverick councillors, although both Noel Dempsey and his predecessor Michael Smith drew attention to bad planning while in office. Both the NAMA legislation and the Planning Bill that is under preparation can address this issue.

Carbon pricing is contentious. What we've been doing to the environment with carbon emissions up to now is similar to what Bernie Madoff did with his investors, and that's why we need to start picking up the tab. Carbon charging will also have its own teething pains, and I thought Oisín Coughlan from Friends of the Earth did a great job debating carbon taxes with that Daily Mail journalist on Pat Kenny yesterday. Eamon Timmins from Age Action is right in saying that vulnerable older people must be protected from higher fuel prices, and that's where providing cash for upgrading the insulation and heating systems of older peoples homes comes in. However I disagree with Gerry Mullins where he argues that a carbon tax on bus and coach diesel would be a 'greenwash'. Once you start lashing around exemptions, where do you stop? In any event, buses are streets ahead on fuel efficiency compared to cars, and a carbon levy will favour public transport, as well as greener cars.

Charging for water, as recommended by Frank Daly's Commission on Taxation will be a political hot potato over the months ahead. Our view has always been that people should receive a basic allowance, but that a charge should apply for excessive use. If you're filling a swimming pool, washing the car every week, or leaving a tap running then you should pay for it. It's crazy that there's absolutely no incentive to change a broken washer on a leaking tap if you're piped up to a municipal water supply. Some form of charging might allow us to avoid the proposal doing the rounds to pipe water from the Shannon all the way across Ireland to the east coast. Let's conserve water and use it wisely instead of building bigger pipes half-way across the country.

We're heading off for our annual think-in to Athlone for a few days before the new Dáil session, before a members' conference on Saturday. We've a meeting of the Parliamentary Party on Thursday, and meetings with our group of Councillors on Friday. All of these reports will figure in our deliberations. One things is certain, doing nothing is not an option. Let the sleigh-ride begin!

Fireworks and Festivals

Back at work this week after a holiday down in Galicia in Spain. It's a magical slightly Celtic part of the world, prone to rain and wind, and everywhere we went there seemed to be wind turbines on the hilltops. We took the slow travel option of a ferry from Portsmouth in England across the Bay of Biscay to Santander, and the journey there was half the fun.

Meanwhile here the NAMA debate has intensified, and it's straight back into the discussion as to what is the best option for Irish tax-payers and the Irish people. As the IMF stated:

"The success of NAMA will depend on a number of very complex decisions that will need to be taken in designing it during the course of the coming months and then in its implementation."

I waded my way through the Heads of the Bill with James Nix and Gary Fitzgerald the other day. We discussed the valuation issues at length, as this is crucial. Writing down the loans to a realistic level from the stratospheric level that they reached at the height of the boom must be at the heart of the legislation.

I was interested in Fintan O'Toole's piece in the Irish Times the other day about NAMA versus the Kenny Report. I sat on the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution as it considered property rights, and the Green Party's submission endorsed the views of Justice Kenny's report from 1973 which recommended that Local Authorities should be able to buy land in specific areas for the existing use value plus 25%. I don't believe that both proposals are mutually exclusive, as I'd imagine that the bulk of development lands have already undergone a massive write-down that brings their value a lot closer to agricultural use. In essence the green field lands will only constitute a small share of the value of the loans that the State may acquire. I'd imagine the real value will lie in assets located in cities such as Dublin, London, and in the United States. Perhaps this is related to the on-going High Court discussions relating to Liam Carroll's Zoe group. I'm hopeful that some of the work that is underway on the Planning Bill will address some of the issues raised by Justice Kenny one third of a century ago.

The challenge for those who reject NAMA is to propose a viable alternative that could cost Ireland less in the long run. The recent contributions by Brian Lucey, Alan Ahearne and other economists to the debate are hugely useful. I'm heartened that Alan Ahearne seemed to call the bubble for what it was earlier than others. One of my concerns about full nationalisation is that it has the potential to raise the interest rate at which Ireland borrows money abroad.

NAMA is only one of the challenges that lies ahead over the next three or four months. We also have the McCarthy Report, the Commission on Taxation, the Programme for Government Review, and Lisbon Two. Each issue in itself will generate heat, and hopefully light inside and outside the Green Party. As Eamon Ryan said the other day, there's a fascinating 100 days of politics ahead. NESC suggested back in March that we need an integrated approach to Ireland's Five-Part Crisis in banking, public finance, Ireland's reputation, and in the economic and social field. I tend to agree.

Meanwhile in Dún Laoghaire the long term weather forecast (as I write) is looking good (if a bit showery) for the Festival of World Cultures this weekend. Trevor is coming out to talk about food at Cool Earth in the County Hall on Saturday at 2.30 pm, and on Sunday, there's a first in the line-up - the Climate Change comedians at 3.45pm!

Looking at the line-up I'd say Dub Colossus at 6.30pm Saturday on the Main Stage at Newtownsmith (between the East Pier and Sandycove) should be amazing, and the following day Oumou Sangare from Mali in the same slot is bound to impress. Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council is the main backer of the Festival which has gone from strength to strength in recent years. They're also organising the Mountains to the Sea book festival from 10th to 13th September.

Between culture and politics there'll be more than enough festivals and fireworks to keep us busy, and entertained over the months ahead.

This NAMA business

The Tree of Gold or Crann an Óir sculpted by Eamon O'Doherty in 1991 stands outside the Central Bank's Headquarter Building on Dame Street in Dublin. The bronze tree (not gold) is overshadowed by a curious piece of granite clad concrete that overshadows its leaves. Perhaps it's an appropriate metaphor for the way that construction and speculation took over during the boom years. Indeed the building itself designed by the late high-flying architect Sam Stephenson was built some 10 metres higher than the the drawings submitted in its planning permission, a fact only noticed apparantly when the city planning officer looked out from his office which was then just across Fownes Street, and scratched his head at the mismatch between the plans and the building.

The Irish Green Party's Housing Policy, adopted in 2004 pointed out that "land speculation and the hoarding of zoned land have distorted the housing market and impeded the provision of affordable housing" and stated that the Government needed to "progressively limit the amount of money that lending institutions can lend for house purchase in order to reduce the price of housing." Back then we were in opposition, now we're in Government. We didn't cause the problem, but we are working hard to clean up the mess and get 'Ireland Inc.' back onto an even keel.

The National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) will be used to consolidate and stabilise our banking and property sector. It will be the largest property owner and developer in the State. It is crucial that the regulation and overview of NAMA is free from undue political interference, once it is up and running. I'm glad to see a health debate emerging about the foundation of NAMA. A glance at the Irish Times Opinion piece 'Nationalising banks is the best option' last Friday might make you feel that an incorrect decision has been made, but I'm not convinced. Twenty economists put their names to the piece, and the line-up included many of the heavy-hitters from the UCD Economics Department. As a a piece of rough and ready research I went over to the excellent IrishEconomy website and checked to see how many of their contributors had signed the piece. Only 5 of the 29 had put their names to the irish Times piece. Of course its highly likely that many of them weren't asked to, but still, it wasn't quite a flood.

Nationalisation would still appear to require the same amount of capital as NAMA, so I don't feel it jumps off the page as neat solution. I'd also be a little bit wary of the Department of Finance being put in charge of six major banks. In addition, there's also advantages to allowing some semblance of a real, rather than a full state market to operate in the price of land. There are strong arguments being made in the middle of this economic storm for more and more state intervention and control, but unless this is done at arms' length from the Oireachtas, it will be open to charges of political control.

One of the crucial and positive steps that must be taken, though is to remove the hope value of land that seems almost ingrained in the Irish psyche. That may be happening anyway, to judge from a piece of land a few miles out the road from Sligo that sold for six million a few years ago, and that more recently changed hands for €500,000. However a colleague pointed out that in Catalonia, they have mapped and zoned (in a good way) that entire region of Spain, so that developers know what the development potential is of every patch of land before it is sold. That clearly leads to better planning decisions, more certainty, and more buy-in from local communities. There's still far too many County Managers here in Ireland granting permission for rural business parks, and having their decisions overturned by An Bord Pleanála.

NAMA will have to maximise the value of its loan book and the underlying assets in the interests of the State and tax payer. I'm hoping that transparency and smart planning might allow us to look beyond a very narrow fiscal definition of maximising, and ensure that the best use is made of all assets. That could mean converting a hotel close to a hospital into step down beds, or producing a proper planning scheme for lands adjacent to a railway line before it opens so as to maximise value and sustainability, rather than selling off the four green fields for face value. For starters they'll need to prioritise sites for development according to the National Spatial Strategy.

Things are moving fast though. NAMA has a website, and they seem to be hiring from what I can see on their home page.