Ireland’s housing crisis has a SOLUTION hiding in plain sight: RETURN POWER TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES. From the 1930s to the 1950s, over 100,000 social housing units were built—because LOCAL AUTHORITIES had real power. In the 1980s, they provided 25% of all mortgages. Today? Less than 2%. The centralized bureaucracy is STRANGLING our housing supply. LOCAL AUTHORITIES once had the power to: 1. COMPULSORILY PURCHASE land without planning permission 2. HIRE BUILDERS directly without competing with the private sector 3. USE a simple ONE-STAGE process (not today’s FOUR-STAGE nightmare) Nothing is stopping the government from giving these powers BACK to LOCAL AUTHORITIES!

Posted by Fred Bassett