Friday, October 11, 2024

ACT Greens urge Labor to release housing strategy

ACT Greens urge Labor to release housing strategy

The ACT Greens have called on their Labor colleagues to release the long-awaited housing strategy urgently, and detail how the government plans to provide more community housing in Canberra.

Greens planning spokeswoman Caroline Le Couteur called on Housing Minister Yvette Berry to release the strategy, after an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed Canberra continues to have the second-lowest proportion of community housing in the country.

It also comes as the proportion of public housing in the ACT has also fallen from 12.4 per cent to 7.1 per cent over a couple of decades, a trend reflected around the nation as Commonwealth funding has fallen and state housing agencies have been left without significant new investment for more public housing.

The city’s planning, development and housing sector has been waiting for the new strategy for several months, since stakeholders formally put forward their ideas in a summit late last year.

While the government pledged the new strategy during the 2016 election campaign, the strategy, if it is complete, has not been released.

Read the full article in the Canberra Times.