• Lack of evidence moving applications for 100+ units to An Bord Pleanála will speed up housing delivery.
• Warns of implications of the further removal of planning function from Local Authorities and the piecemeal creation of a nationalised/centralised planning system.
• Highlights dangers of over-emphasis on the provision of numbers of housing units rather than on place-making and the delivery of sustainable communities.
• Emphasises need to ensure planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála are adequately staffed with professional planners and other disciplines rather than scapegoating planning.

The Irish Planning Institute (IPI) has this week written to Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government Simon Coveney outlining its concerns with aspects of the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness warning that further reform of the planning system is unlikely to facilitate an increase in the supply of sustainable housing and stating that there is a worrying trend for the piecemeal centralisation of the planning system away from local authorities.

Though recognising the seriousness of the housing crisis, in the letter IPI president Deirdre Fallon outlines a number of concerns with some of the planning proposals in the action plan as follows:

Fast-tracking of applications to An Bord Pleanála

Rebuilding Ireland does not set out any evidence that permitting applications for 100+ housing units to be made to An Bord Pleanála will achieve the goal of reducing the time frames in which planning permission can be achieved. To the contrary, the Organisational Review of An Bord Pleanála (February 2015) outlined numerous difficulties with the Strategic Infrastructure process (where the Board similarly act as a combined consent and appeal authority), which can lead to significant delays in the making of decisions. Having regard to the lack of appeal of such a decision, there is also an increased risk of legal challenges. Given this and the experience of our public and private sector members, it is the Institute’s opinion that it will not be possible for a housing application directly made to An Bord Pleanála to be decided significantly more quickly than an application to a local authority.

How pre-application discussion at local level and decision making at Board level will operate in practice is also unclear. The proposal further removes communities from their local authority and development plan. This, combined with the stated aim of reducing the use of oral hearings, is also of concern, particularly in light of Ireland’s obligations under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (known as the Aarhus Convention).

It is vital that we encourage, rather than reduce, public engagement and community involvement at all stages of the planning process.

Implications of further diminution of planning function from Local Authorities

The latest proposals, which would allow the jurisdiction of Planning Authorities to be by-passed for even more classes of development, combined with the removal of certain powers from local government regarding apartment standards under the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2015, would seem to suggest an extremely worrying trend for the piecemeal centralisation or nationalisation of the planning system. The centralisation of the planning system is not set out in any government planning policy and a piecemeal approach to the removal of planning function from Local Authorities has the potential to undermine certainty, efficiency and the efficacy of the planning system in Ireland.

Dangers of over-emphasis on provision of numbers of housing units

There are clear pressures to deliver on new housing but we must be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Rather we must continue to focus on the right development in the right place with the right infrastructure, to ensure quality and long-term viability.

The Government must show strong leadership in ensuring that the response to the housing crisis is not simplified into a numbers game.

For example, the Institute acknowledges that State lands offer the potential for housing. However, there must be a focus on the delivery of housing on sites more centrally located in the city or town including brownfield sites, infill development and derelict sites. While this may be more complex, its benefits include sustainable, compact development in line with smarter travel and improved urban quality by developing derelict and underused sites with greater social integration.

Preferred Solutions

The planning system cannot be made the scapegoat for failures in the housing market. Infrastructure and development finance remain the main impediment to housing delivery.

A recent IPI survey of members confirms that there is no silver bullet to the housing crisis and that planning is only one factor that must be considered in addressing what must be acknowledged is a very complicated issue. Reducing the VAT on houses; greater coordination between bodies such as Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Irish Water and local authorities; funding for essential infrastructure; addressing land costs; and the greater use of compulsory purchase powers to assemble sites are all factors that will play a part in addressing the housing crisis.

Rather than seeking to reduce public involvement in the planning process, the focus should be on ensuring that planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála are adequately staffed with professional planners and other disciplines. This would ensure that applications can be processed as rapidly as possible and that active land management can be carried out by planning authorities to enable housing development. A survey carried out by the Irish Planning Institute indicated that the number of planners in planning authorities decreased by one third between 2006 and 2015. Situations where a lack of staffing resources is impeding key planning functions must be rectified.

There are already procedures in place in An Bord Pleanála for fast tracking appeals on certain types of development including housing in appropriate circumstances. Similar systems should be put in place in planning authorities in order that pre-planning consultations and planning applications can be processed as efficiently as possible. The onus is also on applicants to engage an appropriate team of professionals who can advise and assemble a planning application, which meets all relevant requirements in order to reduce delays in processing.

The letter concludes by emphasising that “There are clear pressures to deliver on new housing but we must be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Rather we must continue to focus on the right development in the right place with the right infrastructure, to ensure quality and long-term viability.”