State should purchase Industrial Lands in Dublin City for Housing

Labour spokesperson for Community Affairs, Cllr Andrew Montague, and chair of the Dublin City Council Planning Committee has welcomed the proposal to rezone tracts of industrial land in Dublin City for housing but insisted that the State should purchase the land under a reformed Compulsory Purchase Order system, based on the 1973 Kenny Report to avoid windfall profits for the current land owners.

The lands should also be developed under a well-thought out masterplan, to ensure high quality housing is developed that people will cherish for decades to come.

Cllr Montague said:

“Those owning land, warehouses and factories in Dublin City would see windfall returns if Dublin City Council moved to rezone the land for high density residential use.

“The proposal floated today by the City Council is not new. As chair of Dublin’s Planning Committee, I’ve been calling for these lands to be developed for housing for a number of years. But these lands must be developed by the State to provide affordable housing for rent and sale to create a high quality mixed community.

“A more practical and affordable way forward would be for a State led approach where the lands were compulsorily purchased and developed by a National Housing Development Bank, as Labour has recently proposed.

“This would ensure that speculative profits would not be made, and that sustainable communities could be planned and delivered. Without such an approach we are doomed to repeating the mistakes of the past.

“Without a centralised plan we would see apartments built in the middle of brownfield sites. That is not acceptable, and is the not the way to deliver affordable and sustainable communities.”