<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2024/oct/29/australian-cities-are-desperate-for-the-missing-middle-of-housing-density-but-its-not-as-simple-as-the-nimby-yimby-debate-suggests>
"The Business Council of Australia wants local governments to be stripped of
decision-making powers if they fail to meet “basic timeliness requirements”
when processing development applications.
The Victorian government is already heading in this direction. It intends to
override council planning to fast-track apartment blocks around transport hubs
in established suburbs.
There’s a widespread view that local government shoulders responsibility for
our housing shortfall because proscriptive regulations enable well-heeled
objectors to block or delay projects. Bolder council action on housing would
certainly be welcome. But the matter is more complex than a simple nimby-yimby
divide would suggest.
Five years ago, Australia was building homes at a rapid clip. More than 215,000
dwellings were completed nationwide in 2018-19 and more than 1m homes in the
five years before that, matching the target set in the 2022 housing accord
struck by national cabinet soon after the Albanese government took office. If
we’d kept building at that pace, we’d get within spitting distance of the
accord’s revised target of 1.2m homes by 2029. Now, though, we’re miles away.
Last financial year fewer than 175,000 new homes were completed.
It wasn’t “red tape” and local government delays that caused the slowdown in
residential construction but changed business conditions."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
