A report released by the NSW Government Regional Housing Taskforce has underscored the urgent need to make a major investment in social and affordable housing to ease the regional housing crisis.
The identifies eight principles to serve as a foundation for decision-making and guide reform of policies and processes to increase housing supply and improve housing outcomes across regional NSW, including:
- Considering social and affordable housing as essential social and economic infrastructure
- Strengthening collaboration by the NSW Government with the Federal Government, local governments, and industry to improve identification, funding, and delivery of infrastructure to support priority housing
Everybody’s ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ national spokesperson Kate Colvin said both the Federal Government and NSW Government must adopt the recommendations.
“Even the NSW Government’s own taskforce agrees that building more social and affordable housing will relieve pressure on the rental market and give more options to those struggling to make ends meet,” Ms Colvin said.
“As a result of the pandemic, we have increasingly seen many with inner city incomes take advantage of flexible work conditions by moving to coastal and regional communities.
“This has driven up both house prices and rents, forcing those on lower and middle incomes either out of the area, often further away from their jobs, or into homelessness.
“This is unfair, unsustainable and unlikely to change without an injection of social and affordable housing.
“The report also highlights the role of the Federal Government in fixing regional Australia’s housing crisis.
“The Federal Government has the fiscal firepower to end the housing catastrophe and cannot continue to push responsibility onto the states.
“A major social housing investment would also create much-needed jobs and unlike transport projects, can be undertaken at scale within two to three years of the policy announcement.”
