Jarrod Bryant – Regional Manager NSW
The NSW Government has recently released 5-year housing completion targets for 43 councils across Greater Sydney, Illawarra-Shoalhaven, Central Coast, Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle and 1 target for regional NSW to address the national housing crisis.
The 5-year targets respond to the NSW Government’s commitment under the National Housing Accord to deliver 377,000 new well-located homes across the state by 2029 as part of the National Housing Accord. These targets prioritise more diverse and well-located homes in areas with existing infrastructure capacity – such as transport and water servicing – which has been independently reviewed by Infrastructure NSW.
The targets are linked to the Accelerated Infrastructure Fund which was launched in 2020 and was available for eligible councils, state agencies and utilities to complete delivery of various infrastructure projects such as roads, stormwater systems, electricity infrastructure, sewerage and public open spaces.
Aside from the question around why the NSW Government has chosen to neglect regional and rural NSW in this housing push, the other issue that comes to mind is how Councils are going a find the capacity to deliver the various infrastructure projects needed to support the 5-year housing completion targets.
According to the NSW Government Local Government Infrastructure Audit (June 2013), the total infrastructure backlog for all NSW councils as at 30 June 2012 was approximately $7.4 billion In dollar terms. It worth noting that the total reported infrastructure backlog has increased by approximately $1 billion since being reported in the Independent Inquiry into NSW Local Government in 2006.
This will be an interesting space to watch in the coming years in the face of the current infrastructure backlog, in consideration of a strained rating environment and noting that many of the Council’s in the Greater Sydney, Illawarra, Central Coast, Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle areas have their open space running a capacity and don’t have additional land available to develop for this purpose.
For further information on obtaining resource support to deliver your project needs please contact Jarrod Bryant on 1300 500 932.