Mr. Philip Jones:

My view would be that it would be ideal. However, there are two issues here. We have the tools which the local authority may have if section 171AQ is extended to all zoned land but we also need the initiative of the local authorities. Some local authorities are very good at getting things moving. We know one or two local authorities around the country are buying up derelict land and reselling it for housing. Louth is one of the top local authorities in that. Some others have done absolutely nothing. There is some initiative needed at local authority level. In my experience at local authority level, at the time of doing that they will say they have to pay full market value for these things and will not be able to afford it. If it can be done at a much cheaper price, and then sold on, and there is nothing wrong with a local authority making a bit of profit either; it cannot only be the private developer who makes a profit, that can be used as a revolving fund to do more. To answer the Deputy’s question directly, this is the best way we can do it at the moment, not because it is the best but because we need to move at least some steps.

The bit that is hidden here is the local authority having the power to make a compulsory purchase order which will have a salutary impact, particularly on landowners who are sitting on land and are not prepared to develop it. You can get your land zoned and sit on it for 20 years. Okay, you will have to pay it eventually when you develop and therefore you will not develop. Having this power hanging over them and the threat that we will take their land from them if they do not develop it, and we will only have to pay perhaps half the market value, would have more of an effect than having to pay when a landowner eventually gets a planning permission. A combination of the two is as good as we are going to get and it is well worth going ahead with at this point.