The Local Government Association of Tasmania (LGAT) has launched its Local Government Housing Position Statement which it says articulates the key needs of Tasmania’s local government sector to make meaningful improvements to housing security across the state.
The Association said that in Tasmania, housing affordability took a significant dive in the years from 2017 to 2022 as the population grew by more than double the highest projections.
“This put a serious strain on our small housing stock, as well as our infrastructure and the various development processes and supply lines required to produce more houses,” it says.
“As the housing crisis has steadily intensified, Tasmanian councils have been on the frontline of its impacts on local communities, yet they have limited tools at their disposal to address the issue.
“Since 2018, our members have been increasingly bringing their concerns to LGAT for advocacy and action through almost 20 motions to our General Meetings.”
These have covered topics such as statutory and strategic planning, infrastructure delivery, homelessness and vulnerable people, affordable housing, housing diversity, the impacts of short stay accommodation, and market incentives and performance.
“In 2023, we established the LGAT Housing Reference Group comprised of experts from Tasmanian councils. They were instructed to develop recommendations for the sector to consider and the Position Statement was produced as a result of this work,” the Association stated.
It consists of four major positions on housing, three minor positions, and an introductory context to help set community expectations of the role of government in a free market housing system, particularly councils.
The four major positions are:
- Act strategically, fix systemically, which seeks to focus the Government on the foundational and strategic components of our planning system.
- Establish an infrastructure delivery system, which calls on the Government to finally commit to developing, in partnership with local government, an infrastructure charging system for Tasmania.
- Housing for residents, which addresses the impacts of short stay accommodation on housing availability.
- Supporting people in need, which articulates the desire of councils to take best-practice approaches to people experiencing homelessness.
The three minor positions address development conservatism, using planning reforms to incentivise affordable housing and the elimination of restrictive covenants that target vulnerable people or housing forms.
“We believe these positions signal local government’s strong desire for meaningful action on housing, and for strategic solutions that target the systemic problems in our housing market.”
LGAT hosted a webinar introducing each position in greater detail and to provide an opportunity for elected representatives to seek additional information. Members can watch a recording of the webinar by logging in to the LGAT Member Portal.
