Inner West Council rejected the state’s housing plan. The PM gave them $2.6 million to do it again
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has given his home council $2.6 million to redo housing plans already drawn up by the state Labor government which the Inner West Council did not like.
The grant was part of $50 million in cash splashed to councils and state government departments around the country – $27 million of which went to NSW – as part of the first stream of the federal government’s $500 million Housing Support Program.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on home turf with West Tigers fans Amelie and Isabel Fergusson at Leichhardt Oval. Credit: Kate Geraghty
Inner West Council received $2.62 million towards a $4.72 million project of preparing precinct master plans for five “housing investigation areas”: Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Ashfield, Croydon and the Parramatta Road Corridor.
However, four of those areas were already subjects of the state government’s Transport-Oriented Development Program, announced in December, which rezones land within 400 metres of train stations to allow six- or seven-storey apartment blocks to boost housing density.
The Planning Department estimated these 37 TOD sites around Sydney, the Hunter and Illawarra would create capacity for 170,000 new homes over the next 15 years, or about 4600 each.
Inner West Council objected to those changes applying in its municipality, but promised to do its own planning that would create the same or greater capacity for housing growth – to which federal taxpayers are now contributing $2.6 million.
Labor mayor Darcy Byrne said the money was a “small investment that will enable us to complete our local planning controls by the end of the year”. He said the state’s attempted rezoning was not akin to a detailed master plan, which required much more work.
“The return on investment for putting additional staff on a council specifically to get increased housing supply will be good. We can do it faster and more effectively at the local level,” he said.
“Our last LEP sat with the Department of Planning for two years after we submitted it. There were no significant changes made, so it just sat on a shelf. The idea that it’s just councils that are slow is wrong.”
The inner west is home to Albanese’s electorate of Grayndler. He announced the grants as part of the Australian Council of Local Government forum in Canberra on Friday, along with federal Local Government Minister Catherine King.
In a statement, King said the grant to Inner West Council would fast-track technical studies to enable 5000 new dwellings “over the period to 2027-28 and beyond”.
“Applications have undergone a thorough, three-stage assessment process, with projects awarded on merit. Unsuccessful projects were not recommended for funding,” she said.
The first $50 million stream of the program funded planning for higher housing supply; the next, $450 million stream – which has now opened – is directed at infrastructure projects.
Other NSW projects funded from the first stream included $2.1 million for Liverpool Council to assess infrastructure requirements for 10,000 new homes in Austral and Leppington North, $1.5 million for Blacktown Council to deliver housing capacity studies around nine train stations, and $2.6 million for Campbelltown Council to “review the statutory framework for the Reimagining Campbelltown City Centre Master Plan”.
Canada Bay Council also received $635,000 to “develop and deliver the Five Dock Metro and Town Centre Precinct Master Plan”. But the council has already completed a local planning study for Five Dock which, as the Herald reported this week, places a seven-storey height limit on the area directly surrounding the metro station.
Other Sydney mayors were furious to have missed out on funding for their planning efforts. Burwood’s Labor Mayor John Faker said his council submitted $1.4 million worth of projects for consideration but received nothing.
“I’m surprised, disappointed, and find this massive oversight by the federal government grossly unfair, particularly for communities like ours that are doing the heavy lifting,” he said.
“Without assistance in the form of funding or staff support some programs like Burwood North, which had the potential to deliver more than 8000 dwellings, will likely need to be slowed down.”
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