12 February 2013
The Housing Affordability Summit held today by the Leader of the NSW Opposition, John Robertson, should be the beginning of a bipartisan approach to solving Sydneys housing supply, says the Urban Taskforce.
There seems to be a continual blame game between the political parties on who is responsible for the low supply of housing in NSW, says Urban Taskforce CEO, Chris Johnson. We need both of the major parties to work together to solve the low supply of housing in the state.
The current Government has made some strong steps in the right direction at the last budget to encourage more supply and this is having a positive impact. NSW however still has a long way to go to match the supply of other states on a per capita basis.
The big problem in Sydney is that an anti-development and anti-change culture has developed in the community and this can be encouraged by politicians looking to take an anti-government position. Our politicians need to take a bigger picture, longer term view of housing supply.
The Urban Taskforce calls on all political parties in NSW to support the increased supply of housing through a simpler planning process and appropriate incentives.
Some politicians like to say they are supporting the community against the developers but it is the development industry that provides the housing the community needs. The debate needs to move away from developer bashing to understand that without developers there will be no new housing.
The State Opposition needs to take a constructive role on housing supply and the Housing Affordability Summit was a good beginning. However we need both of the major parties to work together on housing issues rather than attacking each other.