Ahead of the upcoming election, Dion Lester says there is more that can be done by a future Tasmanian government to demonstrate its commitment to increasing housing supply.
Local government makes decisions daily that influence how our communities evolve. However, for housing, it is the sum of all private landowner and developer decisions together that sets the speed of new housing construction and its release to the market. Planning decisions, like strategic zoning and approvals, set the location and quality standards of new housing development, but not the speed.
There is more that can be done by a future Tasmanian government to demonstrate its commitment to increasing housing supply.
The identification of land suitable for housing development is the first step in the development process. Housing supply must be well-located and well-serviced in areas where infrastructure can provide for and attract new residents, with supporting jobs, social and community infrastructure, and public transport.
In Tasmania, however, there has been limited action in planning for and locating new housing supply. Planning resources at local and state government levels are limited, and our efforts in recent years have been focused on tinkering with the development approval processes, at the expense of the sound strategic planning we need to provide housing.
It is the regional land use strategies where the rubber hits the road for housing availability. It is these strategies that determine when and where land should be released for our growing population. Unfortunately, these strategies are now over 15 years old. Just think back to how different Tasmania was 15 years ago. We had 80,000 less people, and there was no Mona.
There has been limited action in planning for and locating new housing supply.
An update to the regional strategies will support land releases and infill development proposals, provide clarity on what our community desires for their local areas and will drive any reforms needed in our regulatory system to facilitate change. This work needs to be supported by the establishment of an infrastructure charging framework.
Often where there is land available for housing, we have the ‘first mover problem’, where developers do not want to be the first to invest in things like a new sewerage pump station or stormwater upgrades. Instead, they wait, hoping another developer will be the ‘first to move’ and bear the full costs for the necessary upgrades that others will benefit from.
We can’t deliver housing without this essential infrastructure, and we can’t deliver the infrastructure without the right financing. A framework that evenly spreads the costs across the developer proponents who will benefit is critical.
These schemes – which every other state has – provide certainty in cost and delivery for everyone. Without this, we have stand-offs that halt development, as no one wants to go first and pay fully for the infrastructure needed before houses can be built.
Now is the time to move from tweaking at the edges of our regulatory system and instead commence the important task of planning for our future housing needs. To do this, we need the government to resource the review of the regional land use strategies and develop an infrastructure charging framework.
Dion Lester is the chief executive of the Local Government Association of Tasmania
Leave a Reply