Land Development Agency will be a game changer in delivering affordable housing – Bruton

The Land Development Agency will be a game changer in delivering affordable homes as part of a balanced mix of housing, according to Fine Gael TD and Parliamentary Party Chair, Richard Bruton.

Deputy Bruton, who represents Dublin Bay North said: “Commentary on Affordable Housing today, based on a Freedom of Information release, overlooks the game-changing role which the Land Development Agency will play.

“It will make affordable housing a reality through its activist role in the creation and acquisition of sites for development; by its focus on ‘Master Planning’ these sites to ensure the needed mix of housing to meet the needs of the entire community; and by its simultaneous planning of the facilities to sustain those communities.

“This well-funded state institution will challenge the monopoly of developers who have dominated the housing market and will undermine the land hoarding that has kept prices high.

“However, the extreme left-wing view that state land should not be used to meet the demands of all of our community, must be abandoned, if the opportunity for a strong policy uniting local authorities and the LDA in the endeavour is to emerge.

“Sinn Féin complaints about the debt burden of affordable shared equity schemes ring hollow, while they simultaneously continue to block any affordable housing on public lands in Dublin City Council.

“Four years of master-planning is to be sacrificed on the altar of narrow ideology, denying the local community the balanced mix of housing which it so badly needs, including affordable housing. The Land Development Agency can be a game changer in meeting these needs.”