Fine Gael/Labour housing strategy = Tax breaks for developers to build smaller, darker box apartments.
The Green Party today panned the Government’s latest proposals on ‘rent certainty’ as ‘gombeen’ politics.
Reacting to the measures today, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said
“The compromise between Fine Gael and Labour on rent control is 'gombeen' politics of the highest order. The new two year gap between rent increases will do nothing to fix the underlying problem. Their proposals to lower building standards and provide tax breaks for developers to get supply going will leave us with the worst of both worlds.
“Instead of using the crisis to create a whole new construction economy, they are going back to an old order. They want to give tax breaks to developers so they can build smaller and darker box apartments. People are going to spend a lifetime in dark box rooms cursing Alan Kelly for the mess he made in his short stint in the Department of the Environment.
Cllr Roderic O'Gorman said that the measures will only add to the problem: “Landlords have spent the last six months jacking up rents in the expectation of his new rent controls coming in. Now the Minister for the Environment has caved in and delivered nothing but a minimal extension of rental reviews. It is likely to see even larger rent increases as landlords double up on any increase. We should instead be introducing the sort of rent certainty measures that exist in Germany where rent increases are restricted and tied to average increases in the same area over the previous four years."
Cllr Ossian Smyth said that the lowering of building standards proved that the Government have learned nothing: “Councillors from all parties in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown spent the last year forming an evidence-based policy to improve building standards in our area and lower the energy costs for the next generation. Alan Kelly wants a new power to veto local councils from improving building standards. Has he learnt nothing from Longboat Quay and Priory Hall? Why is he letting Tom Parlon pull his strings? Is he the Minister for Housing or the Minister for Land Owners? The proposed abolition of development levies will also lead to a crisis in infrastructural funding for local councils. We are going to end up building homes without the matching, parks, public transport services and other local amenities."
“We need a change of Government. The current combination have no clue about how we might build a better future for all our people.”