Councillor Aims Broadside at ‘Sham’ Housing Target Process

A Melbourne city councillor has labelled the Victorian Government’s draft housing targets plan process “a sham” and “an absolute joke”. City of Melbourne councillor Rohan Leppert took the state to task as the council made its submission to the Victoria Housing Statement 2024-2034, Leppert said the targets were originally introduced as construction targets with penalties for councils if they did not meet them and a notion that there would be a process through which councils could amend their planning regulations to help compel delivery. “The way they were described when they were formally announced at the end of April, was that these would be construction targets with serious penalties for councils that missed their targets,” Leppert said at a council meeting this month. “It wasn’t until June 16 when the government started referring to the targets as capacity targets, and have privately been telling our officers that they were only ever meant to be capacity targets, not construction targets, but the state government has done nothing to dispel the perception that these are construction targets that carry significant penalties if they’re not reached. “There is no process in place for councils to propose changes to local planning rules in the context of this housing targets consultation exercise.” Consultation was opened to councils from July 4 to August 30 with an extension granted to the City of Melbourne until September 6. ▲ Cr Rohan Leppert said the state was providing little transparency about how it had calculated the targets for each council. Leppert said councils were promised an “unprecedented public conversation about the state we want to live in, and the level of information that’s been on the public record is an absolute joke”. “We’re heading into council elections and it could have been an opportunity to talk about the state that we want to be, but instead, we’re still stuck trying to figure out what the basic information is. “This is a sham of a process, and I find it entirely embarrassing.” But, he said, the process could still be rescued. “My observation is that the people of Victoria, the people ... Melbourne, are up for a conversation about densification, about intensity of urban renewal, about what it looks like have well designed, flood resilient, heat resilient, green development that will make denser inner city living a joy, a healthy phenomenon,” Leppert said. “But when the methodology around how we’re planning for growth is kept in the dark, you don’t bring people along with you.” When the Victoria Housing Statement 2024-2034 was announced in September, 2023 it identified a need for 2.24 million homes by 2051 as part of the new Plan for Victoria that would guide development and growth within the state during the next few decades. In April of this year, the state set out targets for all 79 councils. The City of Melbourne’s target was set at 134,000 new homes by 2051. ▲ Melbourne’s target is 134,000 new homes by 2051. In June the council supported the plan on the assumption that the targets would align with population forecasts and notions of capacity that the council had. Leppert told the meeting that the council had asked for information on how the targets were calculated and the data used, and that the Victorian government had not responded. “Councils have been asking the state government, what is the basis for these 2051, global figures that you’ve provided for all 79 councils? And the answer is, well, we can’t tell you,” Leppert said. “And when we say, can you show us the methodology that you’ve used to come up with these figures, the state says no.” The City of Melbourne’s submission identified eight themes to help refine the draft housing target and the role it plays as the state’s capital. But its submission also pointed out that while the council could easily aim to hit the target in approvals, it could not easily compel delivery of the approved housing. That would leave the housing targets unviable with no real change on the ground to address the housing crisis, rendering the Housing Statement and the Plan for Victoria ineffective. Previous City of Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp told Federal infrastructure minister Catherine King that there were approximately 20,000 approved homes yet to be built within the local government area. ▲ City of Melbourne lord mayor Nicholas Reece: State needs to work with councils on changes to planning legislation. Her successor, current lord mayor Nicholas Reece, confirmed this to The Urban Developer in July after he took office . “There are currently close to 20,000 dwellings ... approved by the council for development in the city, which have not proceeded to construction commencement,” Reece said. The 134,000 home target is the equivalent of a 122 per cent increase on the 110,000 homes approved within the City of Melbourne in 2023. Reece reiterated that at a council meeting last month. “The size of the challenge and the opportunity which is before us in the City of Melbourne is very, very big, but I do think it is a challenge the city can rise to if all the settings and the supports are there to enable it to occur,” Reece said. The submission also noted that any targets must be backed by consistent, robust policy to drive quality, diversity and affordability in liveable, high amenity neighbourhoods with the infrastructure necessary to support such an increase in population. ▲ Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece: It is a challenge the city can rise to if all the settings and the supports are there to enable it. “We also need to ensure that there’s the right infrastructure in place as well, and as the city that we have the means available to us to help fund those developments,” Reece said. “The need for public amenity—for parks, open space, schools, libraries, the list goes on—but they’re all absolutely critical to maintaining the City of Melbourne’s world-famous livability. “Wwe need to ensure that there is a genuine partnership there with the Victorian Government, that they make the investments that are needed, that they provide us with the means that to help deliver on that critical infrastructure, that there are right planning controls in place at both a state and local level to ensure that as that new development occurs, that it occurs in a way which we can all be proud of and we don’t see some of the mistakes that we’ve seen in recent years occur.” The submission also recommended that the target be supported with an affordable housing target and mandatory affordable housing contributions, and that the government reframe the target as a measure of feasible capacity as councils cannot compel houses to be delivered. The council has wants to work with the state to refine the housing targets and provide feedback on the urban modelling the state has proposed. Recommendations included using the growth area types defined in the draft City Spatial Plan with land use zones to model the capacity.

Councillor Aims Broadside at ‘Sham’ Housing Target Process

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