Dr. Fred Logue:

There needs to be some kind of evidence to show how the existing ministerial guidelines system has failed. We do not have that evidence. In common with many of the provisions in the draft Bill, we do not know why they have been included or why they have been drafted in the way they have been. I am not saying there is anything wrong or right with what has been drafted. We just do not know what the provisions are trying to do.

The two most controversial guidelines were the apartment guidelines and the height guidelines. They ended up producing apartment development that proved to be uneconomical and strategic housing developments, SHDs, that were highly unpopular. We must be very careful about what we do in the next iteration. We need to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of the past and we need a clear statement of what exactly the guidelines are and are not meant to do. If they are meant to do a kind of end run around the development plan to impose some type of central control over individual planning permissions, we are at risk of repeating the mistakes of the past.