The number of variables involved – including net immigration – mean true demand is very hard to predict and the risk is that policy will always be chasing a moving targetThe Government’s annual housing target, set at just over 33,000 new homes for this year, is hopelessly outdated andIt is predicted it will be in the range of 50,000 homes, which will sit squarely in the range identified by the Housing Commission. The adequacy of such a revised target – and its costs – is already being debated.
They are attractive to politicians as they suggest there is a simple solution to a very complex problem; spend money and build more houses. The more houses and the more money the better as far as voters are concerned. Distinctively Irish, creatively modern: Roy Foster on Sarah Purser, the most successful portrait painter of her day
It is difficult to design and implement effective policy against such a background and there is a strong argument that the Government would be better served focusing on the things that it can control, and which will ultimately determine the delivery of housing.. The biggest and most obvious is the planning system. It is too slow, and the process is all too easily hijacked with vested interests regularly trumping the wider public good in getting more houses built.