The Green Party believes that the pressure for one-off rural housing has become more acute during the last decade because of the rapid escalation in house prices. In Government, with the introduction of our new housing policies, we anticipate that this pressure will gradually abate as housing becomes affordable again.
We believe that the best way to maintain and increase population numbers in rural areas ? based on the evidence of the recent census results (Census 2002) - is to support villages, as villages have held their population better than scattered communities in the open countryside. Areas of population loss as indicated by CLAR maps match areas with poor or non-existent village and town structure. This lack of village structure, which could have been the focus for new service jobs or small industries, is the main reason these areas suffered more population loss than others. Therefore, we believe that the best way to address population loss in weak areas is to create new villages or village clusters and to actively prevent further dispersal of settlement.
We believe that whatever perceptions exist concerning the lower quality of life in villages and towns as compared to the countryside, is not because of their ?alien? form or higher density, but because of their growing association with decline, disadvantage and poverty. Not long ago, villages were highly valued as centres of trade and enterprise and recognised as important contributors to Irish nation building. Since the 1980s, as the percentage of social housing relative to private being built grew higher in villages and towns than the average for the county, so negative perception grew. This perception has led to the low take-up of both local authority housing and affordable services sites in many villages.
In Government the Green Party will do the following :
- We will support rural housing being concentrated in clusters around existing village settlements so as to ensure sustainability. We will ensure that shops, schools and other services will be located within walking distance of everybody so that we can cut down on car usage.
- In order to encourage sustainable development in rural areas we will encourage local authorities to buy or to Compulsorily Purchase land-banks around villages and to provide serviced sites at cost to residents of the area and to people who wish to work in the area.
- As stated elsewhere in our policy we will discourage the building of holiday homes in rural areas by the introduction of an Annual Site Value Tax on second homes.
- We will support the preparation of village framework designs or Strategic Development Zones draft planning schemes for small rural villages. The Green Party believes that many small rural villages are a very low priority for Area Development Plans because of their small size, their very specific needs and the necessity to plan larger settlements under greater development pressure. But, if small villages are to play their allotted role in the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) to provide housing with rural quality of life for locals and non-locals, action cannot wait until other priorities are met.
Most small villages in Ireland comprise one main street or a set of crossroads. With the rise in private car use, many of these approach roads are now major traffic routes and are unattractive or even dangerous roads on which to site further houses. The other development pattern seen in villages is the suburban cul-de-sac estate in a single field, unrelated and disconnected from the existing village. We believe that it is vital if we wish to provide an alternative to scattered housing in these areas, that existing small settlements, however modest, expand to provide pedestrian accessible, high quality and affordable houses while retaining and improving their distinctive rural character.
We support three-dimensional, costed Framework Designs for modestly- sized development schemes being prepared and submitted for Outline Planning Permission in the normal way. This might require an agreement to amend or vary the County Development Plan if the villages have no prior designation for development. The Framework Design should have a simple and limited brief that does not require elaborate statistical information or research- that is to lay out new access roads, public spaces and sites for services, buildings and utilities.
Alternatively, Part IX of the 2000 Act for Strategic Development Zones should be used specifying the economic, social and environmental importance of the development of small villages for rural housing provision. In that case, the Framework Design would correspond to the Draft Planning Scheme outlined in Section 168 and would be processed under the relevant sections. More rigour would be called for in the development of the Framework Design (or Draft Planning Schemes as they would become) under these circumstances as appeals to an Bord Pleanala are precluded under Part IX. Funding for the preparation of Framework Design or Draft Planning Schemes can be recouped under the development levy system. The local authority need not carry out or commission the Framework Design directly. A number of agents are capable of this task including the local Leader or Partnership Company, a good local development association or a Community Land Trust. Planning and Engineering advice should be provided by the local authority, and it should monitor the entire process closely to ensure statutory and local development requirements are met.
- We will promote a number of new sustainable settlement pilot projects in areas of weak settlement structure. We will provide a revolving development fund for this purpose, available to a range of potential development agencies including local authorities, Partnership and Leader Companies, Housing Associations or other not-for-profit Companies such as CommunityLand Trusts. An example of a sustainable and innovative new model of village renewal is the ?FarmVillage? model developed by Sustainable Communities Ireland and currently being developed at Cloughjordan village in Co Tipperary (www.thevillage.ie) and also similar initiatives by Blackwater Resource Agency in North Cork, a Leader Company and Freshford 20/20, a partnership of local orgnaisation and Kilkenny Co. Co. This model includes the provision of on-site sewerage and water treatment infrastructure, on- site generation of renewable energy to provide at least 50% of the energy needs of community facilities, employment and enterprise units, community transport vehicles, community gardens and open spaces. This approach will see the model ?farm village? being integrated with the existing village as part of a carefully planned extension that will reinvigorate the entire area. We are completely opposed to the current trend of developing large, sprawling, surburban-style estates on the outskirts of rural villages which often do not have the level of services or infrastructure to cope with a significant increase in population.
We believe that Ireland is at a critical period of development at present and that if the wrong policies on rural housing are adopted now, major problems will arise in the future. It has been claimed that scattered rural housing is part of our heritage and should be facilitated, not restricted. Before the famine, in 1841, census figures show that about 90% of the population lived in rural areas. However, the first ordnance survey map dating from the time, shows people did not live in scattered single rural houses but in ?farm villages? or clachans, consisting of clusters of 15-20 houses with open countryside around them. After the famine, the Congested Districts Board, and its successor, the Land Commission, moved people out of these villages into single houses as it was felt disease spread more quickly in crowded conditions. The splitting up of the big estates under the land acts continued this pattern of scattered housing.
Irish society has changed considerably since then. We are now an industrial nation with tourism a major employer, and farming is no longer the mainstay of the local economy. We believe that any settlement strategy for the 21st century must take into account the fact that modern living requires external services including piped water, electricity, and telephones. As these services are normally provided next to the public road, that is where the majority of new one-off rural houses are sited. The result is ribbon development along rural roads, especially those leading out of towns. People also want to live where they can have a good quality of life and ready access to work, shops, schools and other services. Rural houses are in demand to a large extent because of the lower site prices but this does not take into account the higher long-term costs of commuting to work, schools etc usually requiring a second family car. There are other costs that are not so obvious. An Foras Forbartha, in a study carried out in the mid 1970?s showed that it is more expensive to provide services to rural houses but the extra cost is often borne by the community, not by the individual.
In relation to the issue of one-off houses in the countryside, we wish to see the current social imbalance of housing development in villages versus the countryside being addressed.
In Government the Green Party will:
- Ensure the provision of affordable rural housing that is rural-generated as opposed to urban-generated. Urban-generated rural housing is housing that is built in rural areas for people who are working in towns or cities many miles away. This kind of development tries to get around the unaffordable cost of housing in urban areas but pushes the price of rural housing up for everybody. In contrast, rural-generated development meets the real development needs of rural areas.
- Promote rural planning policies that give preference to those who make an economic contribution to the rural community in which they wish to live, and who will participate in, and contribute to, the life of the local community. We will actively encourage a range of alternative rural enterprise through the planning process including organic agriculture, renewable energy projects, cottage industries, local specialty food production etc. We support the right of individuals who wish to establish new rural-based enterprises or businesses to be treated favourably within the planning process, subject to sustainability criteria.
- We will ensure the inclusion of a category of individual entitlement to planning permission in the open countryside based on ?functional? or ?social? need within sections of County Development Plans dealing with settlement strategy in rural areas. ?Functional need? will relate to where proposed householders need to live in a rural area because their work requires proximity to it - for example in the case of guards, nurses or schoolteachers- and where there is no existing suitable accommodation available. ?Social need? will cover where proposed householders are caregivers of established rural residents and where there is no existing suitable accommodation available. New holiday homes will only be permitted in existing or new sustainable settlements.
- Conditions will be attached to planning permissions for a new house (subject to the criterion of functional and social need) on an existing farm so as to minimize environmental impact, that it be sited near the farmhouse and that, in as far as possible, it share one upgraded sewerage treatment system and one road access point. This measure would reduce applications from landowners purporting to need a new house for a family member but which is built at some distance from the existing family home and all too frequently sold soon afterwards. (Informal research by planners in co Meath showed that 50% of permissions granted for family members are being lived in by unrelated people 5 years later).
- We will support the widespread use of Section 47s by local authorities in relation to one-off rural housing in order to control resale within a 10-15 year period, and the use of planning conditions for local occupancy. We will introduce a form of Capital Gains Tax for houses built under ?family/social? need that are resold within this period, to discourage speculation or abuse of this planning opportunity.
- We will ensure that rural planning decisions focus to a much greater extent on the environmental impacts of a dwelling, rather than purely on its visual impact. We will ensure that planning conditions ensure the maximum use of the most environmentally sustainable building materials. New homes will, in as far as possible, be constructed using sustainable natural materials and will use timber frame construction and natural cellulose or wool insulation in order to ensure better standards of insulation. New houses will be encouraged, through tax incentives, to take advantage of passive or active solar energy or wind power. Measures including conserving the use of fresh water by recycling surface water run-off, that is ?grey water? for uses where fully treated water is not necessary. Where houses are to be located in rural areas, a landscaping planting plan based on native species will be required, rather than the typical ?quick-fill? screening.
- We will introduce an Annual Septic Tank levy to cover the costs of monitoring and inspecting septic tanks. Although the one-off house owner provides his/her own sewerage treatment, this does not relieve the local authority of the considerable costs in monitoring and servicing the facility. Sewerage sludge must be collected once a year and treated in licensed facilities but this is not happening at present because of a combination of lack of awareness and the lack of suitable facilities. This neglect has had a negative impact on water quality. The government is upgrading and chemically treating Group Water Schemes, which have consistently failed to meet minimum EU drinking water standards, because of agricultural and septic tank contamination in rural areas. In Government, we will require that septic tanks and percolation areas should be in accordance with the most up-to-date European and national guidelines available. Tax relief will be provided on the installation of alternative wastewater treatment systems such as reed-bed systems.
- Planning permission conditions for new homes in rural areas will require that each householder minimises and manages waste, including creating a composting facility and organising the separation and collection of individual waste streams.
- We will ensure that local authorities make schemes available such as exist in other countries whereby grants are provided for new or older converted houses to assist in making them more sustainable and minimising their resource use.
- We will address the current imbalance of investments in land and property in Ireland that is fuelling an asset price bubble in housing and in farmland. We will provide incentives for Irish people, both on an individual basis and in companies and communities, to invest in alternative productive assets. In the light of coming fossil fuel scarcity, the most productive assets are likely to be renewable energy generators. As our best renewable energy resources are in rural areas, hydro, wind, biomass, slurry and eventually tidal power, this policy will diversify investment from the larger cities and towns. The Government?s own policy framework for renewable energies, published in the Green Paper on Sustainable Energy in 1999, gave a strong endorsement for the community ownership of wind farms, but despite the establishment of a Renewable Energy Strategy Group in 2000 to develop strategies for the increased deployment of wind energy, little has been done since to increase community participation. In Government the Green Party would act to remove the barriers to the fulfilment of this policy. Other renewable energy resources, in particular biogas digestion in the midlands of the country, have great potential for community ownership and investment. We believe that Community Land Trusts as outlined earlier in this document could manage the collective investment of communities in natural renewable energy resource built up through goodwill royalties as in Scotland or through individual Credit Union savings and borrowings.