On Wednesday, 13th November, the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) launched its General Election Manifesto “3 Measures for Better, Greener Homes”. In this article, we analyse the different parties’ manifestos against our policy priorities.
Fianna Fáil
The party’s commitment to support the European Commission’s proposal for a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, address vacancy and dereliction, and improve energy efficiency is to be welcomed. However, Fianna Fáil’s manifesto lacks details on how it will support Ireland’s transition to low carbon homes in green, well-connected neighbourhoods, and support the decarbonisation of the construction industry.
Turn Empty Buildings into Quality Homes
Fianna Fáil’s manifesto proposes several actions to support the regeneration of Irish villages, towns, city centres, and energy renovation. These changes should help to further address vacancy rates across the country, and improve energy efficiency of Irish homes. The manifesto, however, lacks holistic, coordinated approaches to tackle vacancy and improve energy efficiency in Irish homes. For instance, there is no commitment to audit the existing building stock and evaluate what is available for use and where.
The manifesto includes commitments to expand vacant property teams in all local authorities, and to roll out the Town Centre First plans for all towns. It also mentions streamlining the legislation governing Compulsory Purchasing Order (CPO) powers and derelict sites, and includes actions to support re-use. The IGBC welcomes the expansion of the First Home Scheme to support the purchasing of second-hand homes, the extensions and increase of the Vacancy Refurbishment Grants, and additional support for “Above the Shop” living.
Fianna Fáil’s plan to support energy renovation includes increasing the affordability of retrofitting for households, particularly for lower and middle-income families by introducing a new scheme based on income tax paid over the last three years; scaling up retrofitting of Local Authority homes; establishing a new Energy Advice Service in every local authority to give independent advice to households; increasing SEAI grants for heat pump; and piloting a rural retrofitting programme for homes currently using solid fuel or oil heating systems.
Build Low Carbon Homes in Green, Well-Connected Neighbourhoods
Fianna Fáil aims to ramp up the construction capacity to 60,000 homes per year. Their plans to increase funding for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), to recruit 400 additional planning staff, and to work with the European Commission to provide a new investment platform for sustainable housing are to be welcomed.
However, the manifesto is vague on how it will support the development of low-carbon homes, in green, well-connected neighbourhoods. It mentions phasing-out fossil fuel boilers in new builds and developing sustainable transport options in the growing commuter belt. However, there is no mention of tackling whole-life carbon emissions, future-proofing residential developments to adapt to a changing climate, or enhancing biodiversity. The IGBC are also concerned that the manifesto does not place enough emphasis on a transition away from cars and one-off rural developments.
Urgently support the decarbonisation of the construction industry.
Despite a commitment to create a €250m MMC Innovation Fund, the manifesto is lacking the steps necessary to address the whole life carbon impact of construction and the built environment. It does not include any commitments to introduce carbon targets for different building types. Further, there is no reference to supporting biobased in construction (e.g., timber), or any reference to improving circularity in the built environment.
Fine Gael
Fine Gael’s manifesto commits to deliver 303,000 new homes by 2030. While it has many actions to address vacancy and dereliction, a coordinated approach to tackle regeneration and energy efficiency improvement is missing. Embodied carbon emissions, circularity and climate adaptation are considered in the document. For example, Fine Gael will collaborate with industry to lower embodied carbon in construction and introduce embodied carbon targets for public projects. However, it’s disappointing that targets are not included for all buildings. The document could also be more ambitious on developing well-connected, green new homes and neighbourhoods.
Turn Empty Buildings into Quality Homes
The manifesto includes several actions to address dereliction. For instance, there is a commitment to provide additional Vacant Home Officers to local authorities, and to expand the geographic areas covered under the Living City Initiative scheme, as well as to develop Town Centre First Plan for every town. Fine Gael will maintain the vacant property refurbishment grant. This will be made available in instalments, with planning exemptions for commercial-to-residential conversions extended, and demonstration projects to showcase successful conversions funded. New grants to convert “above-the-shop” premises in rural town centres will also be available. There are commitments to extend the first-time buyer scheme to second-hand homes, continue the Repair and Lease Scheme, and simplify the conversion of houses into two flats. Further commitments to regeneration include the implementation of the Dublin City Centre Taskforce Recommendations.
On energy renovation, Fine Gael plans to ramp up targets to deliver 75,000 B2-equivalent home retrofits each year. The manifesto commits to encouraging group retrofitting projects and continuing to provide retrofitting grants of up to 50% for home retrofits, as well as extending the Warmth and Wellbeing scheme. Fine Gael also proposes to explore ways to use surplus renewable energy to help reduce energy poverty.
Unfortunately, the manifesto does not include any commitments to audit the existing stock to evaluate what is available for use and where, and to assess what additional space and home types may be needed. There is also no commitment to align public policy measures, such as building and planning regulations and financial incentives, with Ireland’s climate action targets. And, there are no targets on the number of vacant properties to be brought back into use.
Build low carbon homes in green, well-connected neighbourhoods.
Embodied carbon and climate adaptation are considered for new homes and neighbourhoods. The manifesto commits to collaborate with industry to lower embodied carbon in construction, use MMC in public housing projects and expand modular housing options, as well as update the regulatory system to promote the use of timber in new buildings (and ensure that multi-storey timber frame residential units can be built).
The IGBC recognise the positive commitments in the manifesto to prioritise homes near public transport and local amenities, develop new financing sources for brownfield sites, and improve public transport to increase urban connectivity. However, these are contradicted by other parts of the manifesto, such as support for one-off rural housing, and construction of new roads.
Urgently support the decarbonisation of the construction industry
In line with the requirements of the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD), there is a commitment that all new public buildings are zero-emissions from 2028. There is also a plan to set embodied carbon targets for public projects and require each state body to conduct a Green Audit. This would assess suppliers for sustainability, encourage them to offer more eco-friendly products and services, and ensure construction materials and processes they use are environmentally responsible. The manifesto also mentions that they will collaborate with industry to lower embodied carbon in construction. Whilst we welcome the inclusion of embodied carbon targets for public projects, the IGBC would like to see this commitment expanded to all construction projects, in line with other European member states such as Denmark.
The IGBC welcomes the commitment to expand support for Centres of Excellence on college campuses to foster partnerships between academia and industry and develop new solutions to cut emissions. We are also pleased to see the inclusion of a fund to support local authorities in developing exemplary climate projects, and a requirement on them to create a Circular Strategy focused on waste reduction, with particular emphasis on construction waste. However, further investment in the development of other low embodied carbon materials, including a wider range of biobased materials, would be beneficial.
The Green Party
The Green Party’s manifesto seeks to implement a strategic plan for deep retrofitting of Ireland’s building stock. It includes a target of 50,000 to 53,000 new homes per year, with at least 4,000 of these being renovated vacant/derelict units. The document stresses that planning and building regulations must ensure new developments are planned, designed and built with climate change mitigation and adaptation as a central concern. It also includes a requirement for the introduction of building regulations on calculating and limiting embodied carbon emissions from buildings and to facilitate and encourage greater levels of CLT use. However, it’s unclear when will these embodied carbon emissions limits be introduced, and further support for biobased construction materials and circularity should be considered.
Turn empty buildings into quality homes.
The manifesto outlines comprehensive plans to address vacancy and dereliction, recognising that the most sustainable way to deliver a new home is to bring an existing building back into use. These include setting clear targets, and publishing a national online register of derelict sites (to include details such as the condition of the buildings, and the site’s planning history and zoning objective). These plans focus on reducing administrative and regulatory barriers that prevent people from bringing vacant and derelict homes back into use, and continuing to provide financial support to people doing this work, as well as discouraging owners from holding on to these properties without improving them. The manifesto commits to producing simplified technical guidance on converting above-the-shop units to residential use. There is also a commitment to make it easier to secure the vacant property refurbishment grant by providing staged payments and reviewing the grant funding rate. The manifesto also proposes to increase the vacant homes tax and expand its scope.
The Green Party plans to continue providing financial support for deep retrofit of private and rented homes, with a focus on energy poverty. In addition to lower-interest loans for home retrofits, they plan to establish a Community Energy Advice Service in every local authority, to assist households in applying for SEAI grants and to ensure those at risk of energy poverty are prioritised. Other commitments include introducing an equity release scheme for retrofitting and increasing the tax deduction for retrofitting works on rental properties. In line with the recommendations of IGBC’s report on energy poverty, the party will enable healthcare professionals to refer households for free energy-efficiency upgrades on health grounds, progressively tighten minimum BER standards for rental properties, and look at providing 100% grants to low-income households at risk of energy poverty for the installation of solar panels.
Build low-carbon homes in green, well-connected neighbourhoods.
The manifesto highlights a need to mainstream sustainable planning requirements to ensure new developments are planned, designed and built with climate change mitigation and adaptation as a central concern. It also includes several actions to address embodied carbon emissions and support a greater use of timber.
The manifesto has a strong focus on public transport and active travel, moving away from the reliance on cars, highlighting the need to reduce people’s need to drive by planning for new housing developments to be situated near centres of employment, education, and public transport links. It also proposes to establish a brownfield and infill register to facilitate their development and to ensure compact growth of urban centres.
Urgently support the decarbonisation of the construction industry
The Green Party seeks to introduce regulations to minimise embodied carbon in construction and amends the building regulations to facilitate and encourage greater levels of CLT use in construction projects. It also proposes to introduce changes to public procurement to minimise embodied carbon in construction, including by promoting the use of CLT. However, it’s unclear when will carbon targets for different building types be introduced.
The document highlights the need to encourage the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and Enterprise Ireland to further support the scaling up of a domestic industry in modern methods of construction, including ‘design-and-build’ contracts, CLT, and rapid-build modular units. However, further support for other biobased construction materials and for re-use should also be considered.
Labour
Labour’s manifesto places a strong focus on addressing dereliction and vacancy and commits to delivering a significant street-by-street retrofitting programme for homes. It mentions considering biodiversity net gain in new developments. However, it’s disappointing that other environmental aspects associated with new build such as embodied carbon emissions are not addressed. Further actions could have also been included to support the decarbonisation of the construction industry.
Turn Empty Buildings into Quality homes.
With the IGBC calling for an audit of the existing building stock, we are pleased to see that Labour is committed to providing a comprehensive database of vacant homes and derelict sites through undertaking a national survey and mapping exercise. This will include vacant publicly owned buildings such as those in the HSE estate. IGBC believes this is vital, if we are to get a better understanding of what is currently available for use and where. Importantly, it will allow government to assess what additional space and home types may be needed to achieve our housing targets.
There is a commitment to make the Vacant Homes refurbishment grant available in instalments, and to introduce a new scheme to support the conversion of ‘above the shop’ spaces into use as housing. Labour also commits to increasing the Vacant Homes Tax (VHT) and to ringfence revenue from the VHT and Residential Zoned Land Tax for the local authorities it came from. This will be used to fund vacancy and dereliction measures. The overall approach to addressing vacancy and dereliction in Labour’s manifesto is comprehensive. However, the IGBC would have liked to see the inclusion of a target for the number of properties to be brought back into use.
Labour will appoint a network of Local Community Energy Advisors to provide face-to-face and tailored support with retrofit. The network will work with communities to boost uptake of existing programmes and build momentum for whole-area retrofitting. The party also plans to bridge the gap on affordability and introduce a zero-interest loan product, and a new Home Retrofit Tax incentive modelled on the Home Renovation Incentive. The IGBC are pleased to see a direct reference to the Warmer Homes Scheme and a commitment to increase funding, address the long waiting list and open up the scheme to rental properties. Labour’s approach to tackling energy renovation and energy poverty also includes a commitment to establishing a multi-annual funding strategy for retrofitting local authority’s social housing, and improved funding mechanisms for energy renovation of social housing owned by approved housing bodies. The party also commits to making excess renewables from the grid available to people in energy poverty.
Build low carbon homes in green, well-connected neighbourhoods.
In their manifesto, Labour are keen to stress their commitment to achieving Ireland’s climate targets and ensuring a sustainable built environment. They also commit to amending the planning and climate acts, if necessary, to ensure that the annual Climate Action Plan, is consistent with reaching Ireland’s legally binding carbon emissions targets.
The party’s manifesto includes some interesting actions on new development. These include developing a proposal for the introduction of the concept of Biodiversity Net Gain as a planning decision tool, and deploying modern methods of construction, timber build, and modular building at scale. However, other significant environmental aspects such as embodied carbon emissions are not directly addressed.
The manifesto is quite ambitious on active travel and public transport. It also commits to measures to encourage more infill/mews development in urban areas. These include the transformation of the Land Development Agency into a State Construction Company (SCC) to assemble “brownfield and regeneration sites with a mandate to achieve higher densities and in-fill development in urban settings and close to transport links”.
Urgently support the decarbonisation of the construction industry
Labour’s manifesto stresses the need for the public sector to be an exemplar in ‘energy conservation’. It is, however, disappointing that it does not go further and encourage the public sector to be exemplar in all environmental aspects associated with the built environment. There is no mention of any actions to address embodied carbon and implementing targets for measuring the Global Warming Potential of all buildings across their life cycle either.
Whilst there is support for innovation for a sustainable supply chain and commitments to further support the EPA to ensure it is adequately resourced, as well as some support for forestry, the manifesto focuses exclusively on modern methods of construction (MMC), timber build, and modular building at scale, with no references to other biobased construction materials, nor circularity in construction.
People Before Profit
The manifesto highlights the housing and climate crises and commits to setting up a State Construction Company to build social and affordable housing, renovate vacant homes and retrofit low BER-high energy poverty households. There is also a commitment to retrofit all housing in the state to a BER of B2, and to build all new houses to Passive House Standards.
Turn empty buildings into quality homes
The manifesto recognise that tackling vacancy, and renovating homes, are the “the most environmentally friendly route to housing people, as the carbon has already been sunk in the original construction”. It commits to use Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) powers to bring vacant homes back into use, and to introduce taxes on vacant homes and on vacant land zoned for residential development. The manifesto does not however include any incentives, or targets on the number of vacant/derelict properties that could be brought back into use.
On energy renovation, the manifesto commits to use a State Construction Company to directly retrofit all housing in the state to a BER of B2 or above, with the objective of prioritising the retrofitting of homes with the worst BER ratings, but does not include details on how this would be achieved.
There is no mention either of any actions to ensure that all public policy measures, such as building and planning regulations and financial incentives, align with Ireland’s climate action targets.
Build low carbon homes in green, well-connected neighbourhoods
The commitment to Passive House standards in new builds is positive. However, this only covers operational emissions, and it is disappointing that other aspects such as low embodied carbon material, climate adaptation, and biodiversity are not considered.
Likewise, while the manifesto mentions doubling investment in public transport infrastructure and active travel, and states that “estates should be designed with community and leisure facility built-in”, it makes no reference to compact growth, or the need to prioritise developments on brown-fields vs green fields.
Urgently support the decarbonisation of the construction industry
People Before Profit’s manifesto does not include any references to measuring and regulating whole life carbon emissions in the built environment, or supporting the development of a biobased industry. Ireland, with a large agricultural sector has a strategic interest to identify and develop local low carbon biobased solutions from agriculture and forestry and to encourage solutions from the circular economy.
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin’s housing plan aims to deliver 300,000 new homes by 2029. There is a commitment to tackle vacancy and dereliction and introduce a one stop shop to assist the development of over the shop and other commercial premises for residential use. There are commitments for new planning requirements on justifying demolition based on both planning and embodied carbon criteria. The manifesto also includes a commitment to produce a 10-year plan providing a pathway to the delivery of low carbon homes, consistent with Ireland’s legal requirements to reduce carbon emissions by 2030, and to prioritise low-carbon building technologies in public procurement. However, the document could be more ambitious on compact growth and sustainable neighbourhoods.
Turn empty buildings into quality homes.
Sinn Féin’s manifesto outlines that the state must lead in tackling vacancy and dereliction. This includes making greater use of existing buildings with the five-year public housing delivery programme including an overall minimum percentage of all new public housing to come from vacant and derelict building stock. Sinn Féin commits to establish a platform detailing all vacant and derelict properties in the state, and reform planning policies and CPO, as well as to review existing schemes to address vacancy. Sinn Fein is also committed to introducing strong taxing policies to disincentivise speculative vacancy.
The IGBC welcome the proposed reforming of the planning policies to require applicants proposing demolition to justify this course of action as the best use of the building, structure or land. There are commitments to empowering planning authorities to refuse requests for demolition where in the opinion of the Authority the reuse of the building or structure is a better option based on both planning and embodied carbon criteria, taking viability into account. This should limit the amount of unnecessary demolition and promote the reuse of building structures, hence reducing embodied carbon emissions.
On energy renovation, Sinn Féin commits to invest €7bn to expand retrofitting and target it where it is most needed – i.e., 75% of the funding would be directed at those on low and modest incomes.
There are commitments to a tiered grants approach to provide different levels of public funding depending on households’ income, and a greater use of area-based roll-out to deliver cost-efficiencies and expedite delivery. They also propose to expand the retrofitting of local authority homes and to establish a dedicated scheme for the retrofitting of solid fuel homes.
Build low carbon homes in green, well-connected neighbourhoods.
The IGBC welcomes Sinn Féin’s policies on addressing embodied carbon emissions. The “A home of your own” document recognises the responsibility government has through planning legislation, building regulations, construction product surveillance and public procurement, to ensure that housing is delivered in a manner that meets and where possible exceeds emissions reduction targets.
More specifically, it includes a commitment to amend the Planning and Development Act to support the transition to a low-carbon, built environment, and to produce a 10-year plan providing a pathway to the delivery of low-carbon homes, consistent with Ireland’s legal requirements to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 and 2050. The Low Carbon Homes Transition Plan includes requirements to develop an agreed industry-wide methodology for measuring the whole-life carbon content of all building materials, to amend TGD B (Fire Safety) on the conditions for use of timber-based building systems in high-density buildings, and to include conditions on demolition, re-use of materials, and whole life carbon measurements as part of the planning process. Sinn Féin also plans to incentivise the use of low-carbon building materials by incorporating whole-life carbon measurement into public procurement for public housing developments.
Sinn Féin support the concept of compact urban growth in our cities and towns and recognise the benefits of transforming brownfield or commercial sites into higher-density, mixed-use developments. The party is committed to introducing a Compact Development Site Support Programme for private residential developers who want to develop higher density mixed use schemes on inner urban sites. However, their manifesto includes commitments to make large investments into new roads which could jeopardise the delivery of this objective, and result in higher carbon emissions.
Urgently support the decarbonisation of the construction industry
The IGBC welcomes Sinn Féin’s commitment to proactively increase the use of new building technologies to deliver low-carbon building systems.
In addition to introducing requirements on reuse and circularity as part of the planning process (see previous section), Sinn Féin will incentivise the use of low-carbon building material by incorporating whole-life carbon measurement into public procurement for public housing. The manifesto also includes a commitment to create standalone multi-annual framework agreements for low-carbon new building technology contractors for public housing developments. Despite an emphasis placed on circularity (e.g., through the commitment to establishing a task force to minimise construction and demolition waste), the plan could have included a greater ambition to invest in the creation of new value chains and infrastructure for reused and biobased materials. In particular, we would encourage more financial incentives or directly fund research and production facilities for biobased construction materials, such as CLT, sheep’s wool and hemp.
Social Democrats
The Social Democrat’s manifesto outlines plans to deliver 75,000 affordable homes over a 5 year term. It includes policies to address vacancy and derelictions, as well as energy renovation, including the creation of a one-stop-shop for re-use but no specific targets. It is positive that their housing policy commits to introducing whole-of-life carbon targets to the design of all new housing. However, there is no commitment to regulate these emissions across the board. The manifesto mentions exploring the potential of developing a wide variety of biobased construction materials (including timber, wool and hemp), but it could be stronger on circularity.
Turn empty buildings into quality homes.
The manifesto includes several actions to address vacancy and dereliction. It commits to establish a one-stop-shop to allow for increase accessibility of grants and give homeowners a space to look for advice when renovating vacant homes, and to make the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant available in instalments. Other key elements of the manifesto include an increase in the vacant homes tax, considering the use of CPO for buildings in locations where vacancy and dereliction are problematic, and using rates rebates as a policy lever. However, it’s disappointing that it does not include any commitment to auditing the existing stock to evaluate what is available for use and where, nor targets on re-use.
The Social Democrats plan to scale up investment in retrofitting and to launch a community energy advice service in every county to give independent and tailored advice to the public. They also plan to introduce targeted low-interest home retrofit loans, as well as a ‘pay as you save’ national retrofitting programme. The manifesto also includes significant additional support for the installation of solar panels, and to promote the adoption of district heating.
Build low carbon homes in green, well-connected neighbourhoods.
The manifesto recognises the importance of effectively resourcing planning systems when developing new homes, and of increasing the use of Cross Laminated Timber. There is a commitment to introducing whole-of-life carbon targets to the design of all new housing through the building regulations and planning processes, and to implementing the Irish Green Building Council’s roadmap for all new housing to achieve net zero whole-of-life carbon targets by 2050. The manifesto also commits to the development of an Urban Biodiversity Strategy, and the use of state-owned buildings to showcase nature-friendly buildings and grounds.
While the manifesto includes a commitment to increase in investment in public transport and active travel to support the decarbonisation of transport through a significant modal shift from private car use, it does not include any strong commitment on compact growth, nor infill / brownfield developments.
Urgently support the decarbonisation of the construction industry
The Social Democrats’ manifesto includes a commitment to multi-annual funding for modular homes, ensuring that the State becomes the driver of demand. It also commits to provide funding to encourage diversification by farmers into other income-producing areas, including forestry, and to examine the
creation of viable market opportunities for the sale and use of wool and hemp in areas such as housing insulation. However, it is disappointing that the manifesto does not include any commitment to regulate embodied carbon emissions across the board (see previous section) nor to support circularity in construction more.