Assembly 'must address housing crisis'

By Martin Cassidy
BBC NI environment correspondent

The assembly is being urged to address a housing crisis for low income groups by providing money to build 10,000 new homes and to bring more than 9,000 empty houses back into use.

The target is to bring 9,500 empty houses back into the stock

A review into affordable housing also calls for a major shake-up of the planning process to help address the growing housing shortage.

Sir John Semple's report recommends a special unit being set up in the planning service to deal with big housing applications to fast track the house building programme.

The main recommendation is for government to support housing associations achieve a target of building 2,000 new homes a year for the next five years.

The planning service is also urged to consider rezoning unused industry land for housing where it is unused for a lengthy periode

This will require a major financial commitment from the assembly.

But the report also targets unscrupulous developers who are sitting on land rather than getting on with building homes for people in need.

The report recommends planning service should take advantage of any opportunities to dezone housing land which is being withheld for speculative reasons.

'Toughest proposals'

The planning service is also urged to consider rezoning unused industry land for housing where it is unused for a lengthy period.

Another recommendation is that planning applications should be granted on a three year basis and no longer automatically renewed - again to get developers to build rather than sitting on a land asset.

The Housing Executive too is being told to do more to meet the growing housing need and is being urged to be more proactive in vesting land for social housing.

The toughest proposals though are reserved for the thousands of houses which speculators are leaving vacant.

Rather than these properties avoiding rates, the report suggests imposing 100% rates on houses left vacant for six months or more rising to 200% for houses left vacant for a year or more.

The target is to bring 9,500 empty houses back into the stock within five years

There is also a radical plan to allow the Housing Executive to occupy houses left vacant for longer than six months and install tenants from the waiting list.

The report also calls for the conversion of obsolete commercial and office premises to meet the growing need for homes for people being left stranded by the rise in house prices.