A lack of housing is a critical concern affecting communities across Western Australia, with the problem being especially acute in rural and regional areas.
While the COVID-19 pandemic and Government stimulus has increased the cost and time needed to build new homes due to labour and material shortages, the housing crisis has been long in the making, due to successive governments underinvestment in social, affordable, and key worker housing.
Ensuring an adequate supply of quality housing must be a priority for the incoming government. Housing is essential for creating thriving communities, providing critical social benefits for individuals, and enabling local economic development by supporting businesses to attract and retain a workforce. In regional areas, adequate housing ensures the provision of essential services by allowing workers such as teachers, police officers, and health professionals to live and work locally.
In recent weeks, all major political parties in WA have outlined their plans to overcome the housing crisis.
A welcome element in all parties' housing strategies is additional investment in the Government Regional Officer Housing (GROH) program. GROH provides accommodation for our teachers, health workers and police, all of whom are integral to the social fabric and sustainability of our regional and remote communities. With WA's regional population forecast to grow by 18% by 2031, it is encouraging that major political parties have acknowledged the urgent need for adequate GROH housing.
While additional funding is welcome, greater collaboration and early engagement with Local Governments in providing GROH housing is essential to ensuring the program meets community needs. Local Governments understand their communities’ unique needs. They can help identify housing shortages and plan for future requirements, making them essential in addressing local housing needs.
Local Governments also invest directly in housing to lease to the State Government through the GROH Program.
The contribution of Local Government was recently recognised by the WA Nationals, who acknowledged the sector's strong track record of delivering infrastructure for their communities and highlighted the opportunities to work with Local Governments to boost GROH supply.
However, the sector's capacity to invest is limited by prohibitive costs of headworks, GROH build specifications, and leasing terms. These requirements need reviewing to give regional Local Governments more opportunity to invest in GROH housing.
Addressing the housing crisis in WA will require a comprehensive, long-term strategy to deliver lasting solutions across the entire housing pipeline. We need to focus on getting the policy settings right by tackling the current housing shortage through additional investment in supply, ensuring sufficient social and affordable housing, diversifying the housing stock, and creating well-designed neighbourhoods for the future.
Collaboration among all levels of Government, industry stakeholders and community organisations will be essential to develop solutions. Local Governments welcome the opportunity to work with the incoming State government to effectively tackle the housing crisis.
While the COVID-19 pandemic and Government stimulus has increased the cost and time needed to build new homes due to labour and material shortages, the housing crisis has been long in the making, due to successive governments underinvestment in social, affordable, and key worker housing.
Ensuring an adequate supply of quality housing must be a priority for the incoming government. Housing is essential for creating thriving communities, providing critical social benefits for individuals, and enabling local economic development by supporting businesses to attract and retain a workforce. In regional areas, adequate housing ensures the provision of essential services by allowing workers such as teachers, police officers, and health professionals to live and work locally.
In recent weeks, all major political parties in WA have outlined their plans to overcome the housing crisis.
- Labor has pledged over $150 million to deliver additional rental, affordable, and social homes. This includes a $75 million Build to Rent kick start fund and a $79.5 million injection to boost social housing delivery to 1,000 homes per year. They also propose a $210 million shared equity scheme to support the delivery of 1,000 new apartments and townhouses, and a $145 million housing boost for regional areas, involving grants and stamp duty relief for regional homebuyers.
- The Nationals have committed $1 billion to building regional homes and a further $1 billion for the Regional Headworks Fund to unlock land for development. They also plan to abolish stamp duty for first homebuyers.
- The Liberals aim to build 100,000 new homes through measures such as a $500 million Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund, targeted stamp duty relief for first home buyers and seniors, infrastructure investment in regional WA, and further investment in social housing in conjunction with community housing providers.
A welcome element in all parties' housing strategies is additional investment in the Government Regional Officer Housing (GROH) program. GROH provides accommodation for our teachers, health workers and police, all of whom are integral to the social fabric and sustainability of our regional and remote communities. With WA's regional population forecast to grow by 18% by 2031, it is encouraging that major political parties have acknowledged the urgent need for adequate GROH housing.
While additional funding is welcome, greater collaboration and early engagement with Local Governments in providing GROH housing is essential to ensuring the program meets community needs. Local Governments understand their communities’ unique needs. They can help identify housing shortages and plan for future requirements, making them essential in addressing local housing needs.
Local Governments also invest directly in housing to lease to the State Government through the GROH Program.
The contribution of Local Government was recently recognised by the WA Nationals, who acknowledged the sector's strong track record of delivering infrastructure for their communities and highlighted the opportunities to work with Local Governments to boost GROH supply.
However, the sector's capacity to invest is limited by prohibitive costs of headworks, GROH build specifications, and leasing terms. These requirements need reviewing to give regional Local Governments more opportunity to invest in GROH housing.
Addressing the housing crisis in WA will require a comprehensive, long-term strategy to deliver lasting solutions across the entire housing pipeline. We need to focus on getting the policy settings right by tackling the current housing shortage through additional investment in supply, ensuring sufficient social and affordable housing, diversifying the housing stock, and creating well-designed neighbourhoods for the future.
Collaboration among all levels of Government, industry stakeholders and community organisations will be essential to develop solutions. Local Governments welcome the opportunity to work with the incoming State government to effectively tackle the housing crisis.
