We are facing a terrible housing crisis – with current policies it will get worse. This government relies on the private market, shelling out billions to support it. They cannot meet housing need. Here is why:
· We need tens of thousands of social and affordable homes built each year to cater for the many stuck in rent hell or languish on housing lists
· The private building industry cannot build on this scale. The two biggest building companies, Glenveagh and Cairns only employ 300 people directly and built less than 2,500 homes a year.
· If many homes are built, prices fall and profits drop. So private builders have no incentive to build more homes. They will either hold back or shift investment into commercial office blocks or hotels.
· Private developers buy up land banks, get planning permission and hoard the land because the value keeps increasing. There is planning permission for 50,000 new homes in Dublin but they are not being built.
The housing crisis in Ireland will not be solved by repeating the same failed policies and actions that successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have pursued. The Housing Commission report recognised that “exceptional and radical measures to deliver a substantial amount of housing in the shortest time practicable” are required.
The establishment of a state construction company is one such exceptional and radical measure.
In addition, state construction company will also allow us address environmental impacts and carbon emissions through improved design standards, improve the pay and working conditions in the construction sector, help us clear the waiting lists and provide badly needed homes for those in homelessness.
These are policies that benefit us all.