Hands off councils: Opposition reveals its wishlist to tackle housing crisis

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Landlords would be given incentives to keep tenants in properties long-term and councils rewarded for ramping up affordable housing under a Coalition plan that will underpin its negotiations with Labor over the response to Victoria’s housing crisis.

Other items on the opposition’s wishlist are no new property taxes and protecting the voice of residents when it comes to local planning decisions while still fast-tracking approval rates.

Kew MP Jess Wilson says the Coalition wants to ensure local communities still have a say in planning decisions.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

The Coalition’s guiding principles mean Premier Daniel Andrews’ plan to strip councils of some powers is set to face an uphill battle in the upper house, given the Greens are also sceptical of the need to centralise planning decisions.

Opposition housing affordability spokeswoman Jess Wilson said the Andrews government needed to avoid extreme centralisation in its anticipated housing statement, due in the coming weeks.

“Local residents understand their communities better than anyone and must not be cut out of Victoria’s planning process,” she said.

“With the Andrews government already presiding over unacceptable delays on key decisions, further centralising planning powers will only mean slower approvals, fewer homes and higher prices.”

The Age revealed in April that local councils could be cut from decision-making on major developments under a plan being mulled by the Andrews government to help squeeze an extra million homes into Melbourne’s suburbs by 2050.

The premier confirmed the proposal in July following the release of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s Operation Sandon report which examined the corruption risks local councillors and other politicians can be exposed to when dealing with wealthy property developers.

“The role of local councils in significant planning decisions should be reduced,” Andrews said at the time.

“To have part-time councillors making decisions to turn, say, farmland into a new suburb where you are talking about vast amounts of money – there’s clearly a risk that things can go wrong.”

But Greens leader Samantha Ratnam has said her party believed quality housing supply could be achieved without stripping away council powers.

“We believe it can be done,” she said last month.

As previously revealed by The Age, not a single home has been built under the state government’s inclusionary zoning pilot project – six years after Labor promised to develop surplus government land for affordable and social housing.

This week, it was also revealed that a disused golf course in Melbourne’s southeast will be sold nine years after developers purchased the site and sought planning approval from the government to rezone it and build 823 homes.

Scrutiny is not just on the state government. Homes Melbourne, a body set up by the City of Melbourne, has also not built any new homes since it was launched two years ago. Merri-bek City Council, in Melbourne’s inner north, has also been criticised for knocking back an apartment block by boutique green developer Nightingale.

The property industry has long accused some local governments of stymying housing supply, a view shared by the premier. However, councils insist they process the overwhelming majority of applications for apartment buildings within the legislated timeframe.

Labor’s housing statement is not yet finalised, but the reforms are expected to be released by the middle of October once they are approved by cabinet. Andrews has not ruled out splitting the housing statement into several draft laws to help them pass through the upper house.

Labor only holds 15 seats in the 40-member Legislative Council, meaning bills need the support of the Coalition or the Greens and at least two crossbenchers to become legislation.

While the Coalition says it is opposed to the prospect of an Airbnb tax, which it has labelled a “bed tax”, the Greens have flagged their support for such a proposal.

Infrastructure Victoria has warned Melbourne needs to build 44,000 new homes annually to accommodate an extra 3.1 million people by 2051.

Rents for Melbourne houses and units rose for the seventh consecutive quarter by the end of June 2023, according to Domain. The median rental price for a house in Victoria’s capital was $520 in June and with $500 for units – both record highs.

Andrews said on Thursday that the government would have more to say on housing soon.

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