With ‘Intergenerational inequality growing dramatically’, the peak body representing NSW councils has issued an open letter to all federal election candidates, calling on them to commit to a four-point housing plan.
Local Government NSW (LGNSW) President, Darriea Turley AM, said the State’s 128 councils are asking candidates for ‘Substantial federal investment to deliver an additional 5,000 social housing dwellings per year, for the next decade; Investment in a far greater supply of affordable rental housing, for hardworking Australians increasingly facing housing insecurity; A plan to improve rates of home ownership without supercharging demand and contributing to even higher household debt and worsened affordability; and, a Royal Commission into the affordability and future of housing in Australia’.
‘Councils continue to see low- and middle-income workers being priced out of local housing,’ Cr Turley said.
‘There has been a continued fall in home ownership rates since the mid-1990s, as house prices soar and more and more people are forced into an increasingly unaffordable rental market.
‘The knock-on effect has driven homelessness to unprecedented levels.
Needs new approach
‘And yet all we are hearing is the same old simplistic, developer-driven approach: cut red tape and increase supply’.
