General News
26 June, 2024
Editorial: Strip away the housing spin
DON’T be blinded by figures. The weekend’s announcement that the State Government is wanting 500 new houses in the Loddon Shire within 30 years is a statement serving only to highlight that government has no direction for growth of local...
DON’T be blinded by figures. The weekend’s announcement that the State Government is wanting 500 new houses in the Loddon Shire within 30 years is a statement serving only to highlight that government has no direction for growth of local communities.
For a start, various stages of the estate being constructed at Bridgewater will alone deliver more than 60 home blocks within a few years, if the sales are made.
That’s one community. The number of new home permits in the Loddon Shire to March, with three months still to go in the financial year, was 12, according to statistics that also show there were 25-plus in each of the three previous years.
Do the maths - 500 new homes in 30 years equals 16.66! The Government’s announcement therefore does not come close to claims of boosting key worker and affordable housing.
Loddon Shire has already done the early work to identify opportunities to unlock residential development in local towns.
That report showed the Calder corridor was primed for growth but that investment is needed.
To date, that investment has come not from government but from private enterprise.
The Government says it wants more housing that is accessible for transport yet in local communities in that corridor, the train line remains disused while millions of dollars have been invested at Raywood and Goornong.
Grand statements of building housing stock in the Loddon Shire, aspirational as they may be for the Government, are only in sync with recent averages.
We would trust that during consultation on the draft strategy that empowers local government to unlock land for housing, that the Government reveals how it will invest in the infrastructure and services needed for growing our local populations - rail, roads, water, sewerage.
And then there’s planning, an area fraught with hurdles and delays that the Government could consider ripe for an overhaul.
At the moment, the figures look great but don’t be fooled - they are already being exceeded in the Loddon Shire.