Housing issue
Council doesn’t have to look too far to find practical measures it can adopt.
Ablatantly socialist policy proposed by the Greens forcing developers to hand over 25 per cent of a unit development or subdivision to the state for public housing was never going to fly.
Greens MP Amy McMahon introduced a bill to state parliament proposing properties be handed over as a form of taxation.
What is urgently needed is incentives for developers to build medium and high density housing to put a roof over people’s heads – there is a vast amount of anecdotal evidence that it’s hard for employers to secure staff because there’s simply nowhere to live.
In this respect, the housing crisis goes well beyond affecting the most vulnerable members of society.
The state government has been coy about where and what it is buying for social housing in Cairns and what it plans to build, responding to questions from the Cairns Post with bland responses referring to its statewide Action Plan 2021-2025.
Tablelands Regional Council has had a sensational response from developers to its infrastructure incentive scheme, offering subsidies of up to
$100,000 on headworks for medium and high density development, acknowledging it has one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in the state.
Cairns Regional Council endorsed its 50-page Social and Affordable Housing and Homelessness Action Plan in January, but is yet to reveal what initiatives it will pursue in this sphere.
The report acknowledged the housing crisis was affecting vulnerable groups and that “council had varying degrees of influence over different parts of the housing market”.
It acknowledges that council can create policy, programs or financial levers that influence provision of social and affordable housing.
So five months after endorsing its “action plan”, it’s now the time for council to actually act.
If smaller neighbouring councils like Tablelands Regional Council can innovate to stimulate housing builds, it is time for Cairns
Regional Council to step up to the plate.