Local authorities will be told the Government will back them when they apply for planning permission for new road, water and energy projects designed to create 86,000 new homes across the country. Almost every single local authority in the country will be receiving letters this week confirming that they will be sharing €862 million in capital from a new €1 billion housing fund, and project managers are now being appointed for 82 different plans to create housing.The majority of the new projects will create or invest in roads. The new housing infrastructure fund chose projects which Minister for Housing James Browne described as “shovel-ready”, but many of the projects will not result in new homes being built until after 2030 – the deadline by which the Government had promised to build 300,000 new homes. Local authorities have also been warned that if they do not use the funding quickly enough, it may be withdrawn and reallocated to other projects.The fund is being run by the new Housing Activation Office, which was one of the key housing commitments from the Government, which said it would cut red tape and speed up the delivery of housing. It is understood that local authorities will be explicitly told to have a “higher risk appetite” for new projects, and will be told that the Government will back them by assuming planning permission will be granted for projects. The projects include a large housing activation project in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, designed to unlock land for 2,747 houses linked to a rail project. In Newbridge, Co Kildare, the Government will fund the final, most expensive, section of a new relief road which it believes will lead directly to more than 1,000 additional homes. Browne said he would expect most of the 86,000 homes to be progressing “a lot quicker” than within 10 years.“We want to make sure that these houses are going to be delivered, and so we’re satisfied that these projects are good to go,” he said.“But the Damocles sword, if you like, hanging over the local authorities is, if you don’t move quickly on these, we will reassign it ... they need to move quickly.”Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales believes the crisis of trust is still fixable Listen | 48:23Browne also brought forward a new Bill on short-term lets on Tuesday, which he claimed would lead to the Republic having some of the “strictest” rules on such lets in Europe.This is despite a plan to give long-term Airbnb hosts a two-year “grace period” and a simplified planning process.Those renting properties in towns with more 20,000 people will have until December to be compliant with the new law. Those in areas with populations of fewer than 20,000 will have a two-year grace period. Those who have been renting their properties for more than seven years will also now be given the opportunity to seek planning permission under a simplified process. It is understood that such long-term operators will be afforded an administrative process which will not require them to submit drawings as part of their application. A new national planning statement for the short-term letting sector will offer a presumption in favour of granting planning permission for short-term letting where a dwelling has been used continuously for this purpose for at least seven years, and no enforcement action was taken. This will only apply in cases where the proposal would not create serious traffic, flooding, or pollution risks, or breach occupancy-related planning conditions.