DECISION makers must overhaul aging rules as an affordability crisis cripples housing supplies, an urban policy expert has warned.
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"They are now not fit for purpose in terms of long term planning for housing," SGS Economics and Planning principal and partner Patrick Fensham said.
He made the comments as experts gathered in central Victoria to discuss regional planning and housing.
Mr Fensham will moderate a talk on regional planning challenges at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus on Tuesday.
Bendigo and other regional areas are grappling with a widespread affordability crisis fueled by surging populations and economic instability.
At its most extreme end it has helped fueled homelessness.
Some of the people living in a Huntly park - where Bendigo's council is considering evicting homeless campers - have told the Bendigo Advertiser they cannot find rentals in town despite having work.
Housing provider Haven; Home, Safe has struggled to help in a town where rental vacancy rates have fallen lower than one per cent this year.
"The idea that we might need better planning is not the first thing people would think of, but it's fundamental," Mr Fensham said.
"If you don't have a responsive system, what you get is more ad hoc proposals for new areas of land release, and then you don't have a set of criteria to decide whether they are good ideas or not."
Planning system bogged down as demand spikes
The planning system's shortcomings have come into greater focus since the pandemic erupted.
COVID-19 has stressed regional areas as metropolitan tree-changers flee lockdowns, Mr Fensham said.
The market has not responded quickly enough to demand spikes and many developers say the planning system has bogged them down.
Many complained of an unresponsive system that takes too long to get land ready for building works, Mr Fensham said.
"If you've got a nimble and strategic planning framework then those things are much more likely to happen in a systematic and timely way," Mr Fensham said.
He helped the Planning Institute of Australia form its 2022 state election wish list.
The PIA is lobbying political leaders for a host of reforms including solutions that could help create pipelines of regional housing.
It wants state governments to take the lead on a host of ideas that would help regional developers and bring everyone, including councils and ratepayers, certainty on long term plans.
Tax's reform could help regional areas
That would include help on the infrastructure needed underground to connect future developments, access to federal funds and changes to the incoming windfall gains tax.
The new tax kicks in from next July and will cover land that needs rezoning for development.
The PIA supports the tax but wants the money developers pay to stay in the same region.
Mr Fensham did not want to see any money raised in regional areas go into metropolitan projects, for example.
"That would do absolutely nothing to support regional infrastructure," he said.
"All we're saying is that a share of the tax - at least - should be returned to support regional housing development, and in particular infrastructure rollout."
The Bendigo talk, Election 2022 - What planners need now: Better Regional Planning, takes place from 5.30pm on Tuesday and is a ticketed event. Registrations close at 2pm that day.
For more information, click here.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
