Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

900.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will clarify the remit of the Land Development Agency.[35967/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Land Development Agency Act 2021 was signed into law in July 2021. The Act established the Land Development Agency (“LDA”) as a commercial semi-state body with the power to pursue a wide range of activities to deliver its mandate, including managing and developing public land, and collaborating with other parties for the delivery of housing. Ultimately, this statutory underpinning empowers the LDA to play a vital role in increasing housing supply across the State and to support delivery of the Government’s broader strategic housing goals and objectives.

The LDA has a major role in the delivery of new homes, particularly on underutilised and vacant State lands. It has two primary housing delivery channels, which are direct delivery on State-sourced lands; and delivery through house-builder partners, known as ‘Project Tosaigh’. The LDA’s near to medium term delivery pipeline through these delivery channels is in excess of 10,000 homes.

Direct Delivery

Direct delivery by the LDA comprises the appointment of builders to build homes on lands acquired from the State or market sources. These housing developments, the design of which is generally overseen by the LDA, are also put through the planning process by the Agency.

This activity is a core purpose of the LDA and it contributes towards the achievement of the majority of the purposes under the Act. Using this delivery stream, the LDA has made considerable progress. The Agency is on track to be one of, if not the largest housing producers in Ireland within the timeframe of its 2024-2028 business plan.

Project Tosaigh

Project Tosaigh is the LDA’s second major delivery channel and involves the LDA partnering with house builders to ensure the delivery of stalled or unviable housing developments and then making the homes available through cost rental or affordable purchase schemes. This delivery mechanism is critical to keep industry output going at a time when private ‘build-to-rent’ schemes have fallen away and developers are experiencing difficulties accessing finance.

This delivery channel addresses a number of the LDA’s purposes under the Act that cannot be solely addressed by the development of public lands alone, most particularly Sections 2(a) and 2(p) which mandate the taking of urgent measures to increase the supply of social and affordable housing and establishing mechanisms between public and private bodies to develop public and private lands.

Without this State intervention, many of the housing developments currently under development by the private sector, particularly apartment developments, would not otherwise be delivered. Project Tosaigh also expedites overall LDA delivery while their direct delivery stream is ramped up.

The LDA also fulfils a number of other purposes and some of these are outlined below:

• The LDA acts as a national centre of expertise, working with and supporting local authorities, public bodies and other interests, to harness public lands as catalysts to stimulate regeneration and wider investment and to achieve compact, sustainable growth with a particular emphasis on complex regeneration projects and the provision of affordable and social housing for rent and/or purchase;
• The LDA provides affordable housing for rent and sale in communities well-served by schools, infrastructure that promotes and facilitates cycling or walking, public transport and public amenities to support the common good, counteract the segregation in housing between persons of different social background and to combat the long term housing shortage;
• The LDA coordinates the regeneration and best practice development of suitable State lands in relevant towns and cities and opening up key sites with potential for the delivery of new homes while maintaining balanced land use and with due regard to the heritage and built environment of Ireland’s towns and cities;
• The LDA drives strategic land assembly, planning and development through mechanisms that will bring together both public and private sector interests in ensuring the timely preparation and release of strategic land for development in a counter-cyclical manner. Such counter-cyclical action will be aimed at stabilising any tendency towards volatility in development land values securing more of the increase in values as a result of the planning and infrastructure investment processes for the common good and thereby increased affordability through better and more cost-competitive land availability; and
• The LDA strives to achieve the best possible social and economic return from the use of relevant public land consistent with the LDA Act and its purposes, including the generation of funds from commercial activities required to cover the functioning of the LDA.