Republican News · Thursday 3 July 2003

The land belongs to the people

BY JOANNE CORCORAN

Over the last few decades many things typically 'Irish' have faced extinction. Spending your holliers in Wicklow has given way to two weeks in the Costa del home from home, eating mash all week has given way to 'eating out', and drinking Guinness in murky pubs is slowly giving way to sipping coffee under street umbrellas.

But in the last few years no Irish tradition has been more under threat than the one which saw everyone over the age of 20 able to move into their own homes.

Astronomical house prices, land prices and rents, have created a culture whereby to have any chance of ever leaving the roost, you would have to save every penny starting from your first communion, get a job in investment banking, work eight days a week and never leave the house. Then, if you're very, very lucky, you may have a chance of owning your own house by the time you're 50.

There's no home like your own home

Irish people have a complex relationship with private property that is deeply influenced by our colonial past. The country is now second only to New Zealand for the trend of home ownership.

Unfortunately, there are many who advocate ever-greater protection for the rights of property, and the 1937 Constitution gives them a basis for this by protecting the rights of private property.

On 23 June, Sinn Féin made a submission on private property and housing to the All-Party Oireactas Committee on the Constitution. Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Arthur Morgan introduced the submission saying:

"Ultimately, the land of Ireland belongs to the people of Ireland and that is the underlining theme on which our submission is based. Sinn Féin believes that the constitutional balance must be in favour of the common good over and above the rights of private property."

Housing as a right

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the 26-County state signed up to, addressed the right to housing and all countries who signed it are expected to recognise that right.

Under the Good Friday Agreement, there must now be an equal level of protection of human rights North and South, and this means that the Covenant's provisions, already in force in the North under the British Human Rights Act 1998, must be enacted in the South.

However, despite expert reports, a new Planning Act and a Commission on the Private Rented Sector, there are still problems with rising house prices, rising rents, evictions, homelessness and a record 54,000 households waiting for social housing. At least another 8,200 households are coming onto the waiting list annually. Government strategy, if implemented, will take over 14 years to solve the problem.

Over the last 18 months, prices have soared as investors returned to the market. Interestingly, construction cost increases have not mirrored house prices.

Picking up the property pages these days has become a sure way to raise your blood pressure. The average cost of a house in Dublin is now §300,000. And throughout the 26 Counties as a whole, §220,000.

Sinn Féin's submission calls for government intervention in dealing with rising house prices through taking measures to control the price of building land.

Rezoning and Planning

Landzoning, planning permission grants, public works, infrastructure provision and services all make a contribution towards increasing land value. Currently, the State is forced to pay open market prices for land that derives much of its value from government policies. The Sinn Féin submission says a code of practice should be implemented to ensure that developers/speculators are not profiting from the development of State-funded infrastructure by local or central government.

It also says that zoning, which has been embroiled in controversy and corruption, should be used as a positive mechanism to ensure that an adequate amount of land is made available for social housing.

Recent figures published by the Department of the Environment and Local Government show that there were over 12,177 hectares of zoned land available for residential housing, which could accommodate 327,784 housing units.

Sinn Féin's submission calls for consideration to be given to affording local authorities pre-emptive rights to acquire land zoned for residential use.

Price of Development Land

There is evidence of the hoarding of land by developers, speculators and builders for the purpose of benefiting from house price increases.

The high price land resulting from this has led to unsustainable urban sprawl.

There is no sign that that the housing market and the price of building land is about to decrease or stabilise without government intervention.

In the submission, Sinn Féin calls for:

• The use of Compulsory Purchase Orders against speculators sitting on land and derelict properties.
• The control of land prices, with a statutory ceiling on the price of land zoned for housing.
• The Oireachtas All-Party Committee to examine how the issue of controlling building land prices has been addressed in other jurisdictions.

Section V of the Planning and Development Act 2000

At the end of 2002, the government introduced legislation to repeal Section V of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Section V ordered developers to ensure that 20% of their housing was dedicated to social housing.

This rule was replaced with one where developers could offer local authorities either other sites or money for not having to have social housing. Sinn Féin believes that housing should be integrated and is strongly opposed to the view put forward by some that the introduction of the Social and Affordable Housing provisions have generated impediments to supply and have thereby unintentionally increased rather than stabilised house prices.

Personal Private Property Vs Commercial Private Property

Sinn Féin makes it clear that it opposes the extension of property rights to bodies corporate, trusts, partnerships, limited companies, etc. It does not agree with Article 1 of the First Protocol to the European Convention of Human Rights, which extends the protection of property to legal as well as natural persons. It also calls for capital gains tax (a tax on profit from large capital sales), to be restored to its 1997 level of 40 per cent and for an increase in Capital Gains tax on speculative owners of multiple dwellings.

Compulsory Purchase Orders

Compulsory Purchase Orders can be enacted by the government. Their powers have been used in the past for the building of roads, railways and canals, where the outcome is not simply in the common good - it is beneficial to economic and commercial development.

Unfortunately, barriers exist to using Compulsory Purchase Orders to procure land for housing.

The submission considers why there is a necessity for full compensation equal to the market value in all cases where CPO is used. This rule often impedes local authorities from using CPO to procure land for the provision of social housing by prohibitive compensation.

Over the years, the courts have supported the idea that compensation is necessary. However, Sinn Féin asserts that compensation should, where compensation is necessary, be based on existing use value, with or without a stipulated percentage, as it isn't fair that local authorities have to pay full market value for land that derives much of its value from zoning decisions and infrastructural development.

Ground Rents

On ground rents - an annual rent paid to a landlord for the lease of grounds, the submission says they be abolished and landlords not compensated. There are 250,000 ground leases in the 26-County state. The state itself pays ground rents in many cases to English ground landlords, but the majority are on households. When the ground lease is up, people who believe they own their houses when they bought them face an appalling choice. They can choose to buy a freehold on their house for one eighth of its value, or sign a new lease for a drastically increased rent. With the value of houses increasing, people whose leases are due to expire are justifiably angry and concerned.

Access to the Countryside

The Submission also deals with the issue of access to the countryside. Much of Ireland's traditional 'right of way' passages have been replaced with 'no trespassing' signs, and Sinn Féin believes that as part of solving the problem, land owners should not be held legally responsible for compensation claims arising from the use of pathways by the public.