Page 359 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 7 March 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Public housing will remain the most affordable housing option for low-income families in the ACT. We are maintaining a greater proportion of public housing than any other state or territory and lead the way in allocating housing to those most in need. However, that is not proving to be enough to relieve the current pressures on public housing, which largely reflect a market failure at the lower end of the private housing market.
A strong message from the summit was that the attack on affordability must come from the supply side. Land supply is a key issue, both in new suburban developments and medium-density sites closer to the city. High building costs attributable to the skills shortage are another major factor.
In response to these issues, I am eager to explore further joint ventures to rejuvenate ageing Housing ACT multiunit developments and undertake new affordable developments in areas such as City West and Forde. I will hold further discussions with the private sector to progress the variety of new ideas brought to the table at the summit, including some innovative investment proposals for maintaining and renting low-cost housing.
The forum and summit were a great success in gathering people into one room to discuss these issues. Many of them had not come together before or been given the opportunity to voice their ideas to government. The ACT government has implemented a range of measures to support affordability and to enhance services to the community, and I will continue to work on new ways to enhance housing affordability.
MS PORTER: I have a supplementary question. Can the minister please outline for the Assembly what measures the government has already undertaken to improve housing affordability in the ACT?
MR HARGREAVES: The Stanhope government has implemented a number of housing affordability measures, backed up by considerable funding, since coming to office in 2001. These have included $4 million over four years, starting in 2002-03, for a range of innovative social housing projects, including funding to improve the amenity of accommodation at Ainslie Village, funding to increase the capacity of the indigenous housing sector and funding to expand community housing.
In 2003-04, $3 million was provided to increase community-managed affordable housing. In the third appropriation of 2003-04, $33.2 million was provided to boost social housing. That was the largest single injection of funding into public and community housing since self-government. In the following budget, 2004-05, that was augmented by a further $20 million over four years, at $5 million a year, to further increase the supply of social housing. That will assist in the acquisition of a further 60 properties.
The government announced a number of additional affordability initiatives in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 budgets. These included: $13.4 million over four years to address homelessness; funding to assist the replacement of the 81 public housing properties destroyed in the January 2003 bushfires; $1.6 million over four years for emergency accommodation; $5.2 million committed by reducing the land tax burden on rental
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .