2 April 2012
Housing approvals in NSW for February have collapsed by 41% and non-residential approvals by 54% while the COAG Reform Council seems to be skirting around real reform. says the Urban Taskforce.
The dramatic decrease in building approvals nationally but particularly in NSW is a worrying sign for the states economy. says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson. Approvals must go up but even more important is the stimulation of construction in Sydney to stem the increase in the undersupply of housing.
One would assume that the COAG Reform Council Review of Capital City Strategic Planning Systems would contain some ways forward to solve our housing supply which is driven by population growth but the review says it is silent on immigration levels or settlement patterns in Australia.
The review rates each capital city against a dozen criteria. The criteria seem to be very general and exclude policy directions being pursued by governments. Even the ratings seem very imprecise with most being assessed as being partially consistent. It is a bit like Nero fiddling while Rome burns or in our case COAG fiddling while housing approvals collapse.
Rather than reforming city planning COAG seems to be strengthening the Commonwealth Governments role while stating that the states and territories have the main role but also stressing the importance of local governments.
Specific metropolitan wide governance is not addressed as a possible reform. Clearly a large city council like the Brisbane City Council covering one million people is an example worth looking at as is the recent move by Auckland to form a super Council of one and a half million people.
Another reforming part of the federal government, the Productivity Commission has co-incidentally come out with a review of the effectiveness of local governments around Australia and it seems that planning is a major issue for reform.
