Committee for Ballarat welcomes the announcement of a Regional Housing Inquiry and the State Government’s desire to get “Regional MPs into the community to talk about housing” (Minister Thomas).
We congratulate our local Member for Wendouree Juliana Addison for being appointed to lead this inquiry and encourage all MPs across the state, in Metropolitan and Regional electorates to talk to regional people about housing. This is a state-wide issue and we urge all MPs, in a bi-partisan approach, to collaborate on this critical issue that impacts all communities and every sector in our state.
Committee for Ballarat will continue to advocate for policies and programs that incentivise development, especially when it comes to under-utilised land and existing buildings. We need to activate “lazy assets” where they can be identified and rapidly transform them into the housing outcomes our community needs.
There are many examples in Ballarat’s CBD of such assets, including the second story of Sturt Street’s shop fronts, that have the potential to be developed into inner city accommodation, including for essential workers.
Infill development is crucial and whilst in Ballarat we have seen a few examples of great outcomes for inner-city living, we also know that the time and delays imposed results in unnecessary and prohibitive costs that impact housing affordability and ultimately prevent people for accessing the housing they need.
There are a number of options available to government that would unlock land that is appropriate for development. These options start with reducing the costs and time for the approval of planning permits and the onerous processes that often lead to 3rd party appeals.
Committee for Ballarat are concerned, as many in the industry are, that increases in existing taxes and the introduction of new ones, have resulted in additional costs that make some business cases for development more and more marginal. As a result, all forms of housing development have slowed.
We need policy settings and appropriate incentives to reverse the trend and accelerate appropriate development, where it can be identified and supported.
Ballarat will require well planned, connected and serviced, greenfield development to continue so that we can meet our housing demands. Infill and brownfield developments will not be able to meet our needs for the volume, nor the diversity of housing our regional community needs.
Together with policies and planning that enable the development of underutilised residential and commercially zoned land, the early identification of new greenfield development areas must be prioritised. Certainty in regard to re-zoning, will ensure well planned and long-term development can occur with appropriate investment in infrastructure and amenity to ensure communities are built, and not just houses.
What we don’t want to see is the extension of further disincentives such as the Vacant Land Tax, that give people little option but to sell or develop private vacant land and carve up residential land, denying families the opportunity to live on a large block and can result in the destruction of local neighbourhood character.
We understand housing policy and planning can be complex and a balance between increasing supply, market demand, neighbourhood character and community sentiment needs to be achieved. This can be realised through collaborative, place-based and local consultation, that can identify appropriate sites for development and incentives the opportunity to do so.