Housing is widely perceived to be in crisis in Australia, including its availability, rate of production and affordability, alongside issues of energy efficiency, durability and liveability in a changing climate.
Spinifex is an opinion column. If you would like to contribute, contact us to ask for a detailed brief.
In response, Australian federal and state governments have promoted housing and planning policy reforms, and most prominently, ambitious targets for new housing supply.
For local government, its role is largely seen as implementing planning schemes, which has been the subject of debate as to whether it is increasing costs and time taken to construct housing in our cities.
While these arguments continue, other roles for local government in facilitating and guiding innovation in housing supply within their municipalities are often overlooked.
Our recent research for the Municipal Association of Victoria, part of a multifaceted investigation into council-led housing initiatives, includes three case studies that show how local government can accelerate quality housing supply through ongoing engagement with communities, developers, housing providers and other industry participants, while achieving strategic aims at local levels.
When it comes to directly increasing housing supply, local government’s role is predominantly through land release measures. In metropolitan areas, this means councils are often expected to enable market-led and precinct-scale housing developments through (re)zoning and divesting suitable tracts of public land.
While making sites available for development at scale contributes to increasing housing supply, our analysis of the Maroochydore City Centre and Love Wolverton projects shows that local government can influence supply through ongoing engagement with the planning and development process, and by retaining a stake in the project.
Maroochydore City Centre development
In Maroochydore City Centre, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast Council transfers ownership of a former golf course to the development partner, Walker Corporation, as it delivers public infrastructure and facilities alongside high-density housing.
Council have continued responsibility for the development scheme and its amendments, in partnership with state government. This means council is able to promote transport-oriented development goals, to reduce car dependency in favour of active and public transport and boost the supply of one and two-bedroom dwellings in the region, while engaging communities around the benefits of apartment living within the precinct.
Love Wolverton development
in the UK’s Milton Keynes Love Wolverton has had a troubled gestation, but interventions by Milton Keynes City Council have led to a project that meets the ambitious social and sustainability goals set out by the community in a neighbourhood plan. The involvement of the council is an outcome of purchasing the inner-city, dilapidated shopping mall site when a private sector redevelopment was failing in 2019, and is expected to provide for mixed and affordable, sub-market rental housing, in a walkable precinct, and a co-housing scheme for seniors.
Both of these examples result in increased housing supply as a direct consequence of precinct activation by local government, including site purchase, but by maintaining authority and interest in the quality of housing supply, other key housing outcomes such as sustainability and affordability are being addressed.
Adelaide
The Adaptive Reuse City Housing Initiative (ARCHI) run by the City of Adelaide is a distinctly different approach to fostering housing supply. The program responds to the need for housing with regard to the limitations facing the council: it did not control precinct scale sites and was facing funding constraints. Therefore, council gained support from the South Australian government to promote the adaptive reuse of vacant commercial buildings in the city centre, for small-scale housing interventions.
The program provides small grants to property owners to support feasibility studies and contribute to construction work and is delivering city-centre housing in previously underused and vacant buildings. The preparation of development guides has also been funded and audits have been undertaken in conjunction with UniSA to identify suitable buildings. While these actions have all been important, the most valued aspect of the program is the dedicated project officer, who assists project proponents with approval processes and connections to consultants and companies with the appropriate skills.
These interventions by councils demonstrate that ongoing engagement with development can result in more, and better housing outcomes. In addition, they also highlight the connection of housing supply with other social and local government agendas.
ARCHI was developed in response to multiple strategic objectives of the City of Adelaide: circular economy goals; a drive to increase the population to 50,000 people in the forthcoming years to invigorate the CBD and its economy; and to support the people requiring housing for the growing health and education sectors in the municipality.
The Maroochydore City Centre responds to the need for a “CBD” for the Sunshine Coast, to provide a higher order activity centre and a node for employment and economic activity to underpin population growth in the region and resist the prospect of transforming into an extended Brisbane suburb.
Love Wolverton recognises the risks of gentrification in the prosperous Milton Keynes area, as well as how the changing climate in the UK is creating the demand for housing that is liveable in warmer conditions.
Together, the case studies remind us that local government has an essential role to play in housing facilitation and production, which reflects its proximity to and embeddedness within the futures of local communities.