What will the Housing Activation Office – and possible chief executive Brendan McDonagh – do?
'The Housing Activation Office will do what it says on the tin,' Minister for Housing
James Browne
says. But what exactly does it say on the tin?
The new office was announced on Tuesday and has been heralded by this Government as the great unblocker of the
housing crisis
.
Its aim is to pull together various stakeholders in local authorities, utility providers and the construction industry to get more houses built faster.
Are you a builder looking for Irish Water to service your site? Call the Housing Activation Office (HAO). Are you a local authority with land primed for housing lying unused? Then the HAO might call you. Maybe you are an infrastructure provider such as the ESB – the HAO wants you on board so you can service the land that's ready to build on.
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Brendan McDonagh, the chief executive of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), has been identified to head up the new office.
McDonagh, a Co Kerry native, is a qualified accountant. Before his role at Nama he was finance director at the National Treasury Management Agency and was in Government Buildings on the night the bank guarantee was decided on in 2008.
During his time at Nama the agency has developed land for housing for both the social and private sectors and has collected debt payments from developers who could pay it, while taking over the properties of those who could not.
So then, some developers might not have had too pleasant an experience with Mr McDonagh, or Nama, but he could be working on their side in this new venture.
Working under the chief executive at the HAO will be senior people from Uisce Éireann, ESB Networks, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the National Transport Authority and the local authorities.
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The office will also work closely with officials from the planning and housing divisions of the department to ensure its work is aligned with the National Planning Framework.
The key aim of the HAO is to remove barriers to the provision of infrastructure on land suitable for housing.
Difficulties in securing water and electricity connections are one of the main stumbling blocks faced by builders and developers.
One developer said recently he had 200 houses in the west of the country built and ready to sell but at a complete standstill for the past 12 months because they are waiting on a water connection to be provided.
Ordinary people from the same county have contacted me saying they are now facing homelessness because their landlord is selling their property and they cannot find anything else to move into.
A field full of houses, and a family with no home, all in the same local authority area. Are we to believe a Housing Activation Office might solve it?
The
Housing Commission
believed it would help. In its 2024 report it r
ecommended establishing a body
such as this, saying it should be given powers through legislation to identify and address blockages to housing delivery.
This body should be time limited and should oversee and drive investment in public utilities on land zoned for housing, the commission said.
The commission also recommended that the body have the authority to resolve conflicts between public entities over the provision of infrastructure.
Critics might say this all sounds a lot like what a Department of Housing should do. Advocates for the new office say it will co-ordinate services and accelerate the delivery of new homes.
It remains to be seen which of them is right.
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