The Liberal National Coalition has promised to clear a backlog of housing approvals within twelves months if it wins office in next month’s election.

And the Coalition will also create a network of training collages to help increase the number of young Australians who graduate with technical qualifications.

As housing affordability takes centre stage in the upcoming election, the Coalition has promised to clear what it says is a backlog of residential projects which are currently in the environmental approval process.

Toward this end, it has set a target of:

• finalising decisions with respect to residential projects which have been in the approvals process for more than a year within six months; and
• finalising all currently outstanding residential project approvals within twelve months.

To achieve this, the Coalition says it will leverage a new body which it intends to establish known as Investment Australia.

Earlier this month, the Coalition announced its intention to establish Investment Australia as a new statutory office within the Treasury.

Its mission will be to consolidate and streamline key functions of government in order to drive productivity, facilitate investment and improve competitiveness. The aim will be to streamline major project approvals, cut red tape and restore Australia’s global competitiveness.

Building and construction will be a key focus of the new office.

Actions it will take in terms of housing include:

• expediating project approvals
• working with relevant departments to establish timelines for each outstanding residential development project; and
• simplifying approval processes, including by clarifying rules surrounding environmental offsets.

As part of efforts to develop the skills which are needed to build new homes, meanwhile, the Coalition has promised to spend $260 million to establish a network of twelve new technical of new technical colleges around the country.

The move is aimed at students who are in years 10 to 12. It aims to deliver more options to learn trades such as construction, plumbing and engineering.

It is also part of the Coalition’s approach to emphasise vocational training rather than pushing students into university.

The latest promises come as both major parties have made housing affordability a key part of their election pitch.

On the government side, Labor has promised to enable all Australians to buy their first home with a 5 percent deposit and invest $10 billion into grants and interest free loans to construct up to 100,000 homes that would be for sale exclusively to first home buyers.

This builds on existing Labor actions including the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) and doubling the amount of money which apprentices in housing construction trades are able to access in order to complete their apprenticeship.

Meanwhile, the Coalition’s main promises include $5 billion in enabling infrastructure, employer incentives to take on new apprentices, allowing people to use superannuation to purchase their first home, avoiding changes to the National Construction Code for up to 10 years and easing pressures on new housing demand by restricting immigration levels.

But the Coalition says it will abolish the HAFF. This has drawn sharp criticism from housing and welfare groups who say that it will leave tens of thousands of Australians who seek homelessness support unable to access secure housing.

Building industry lobby groups welcomed the latest announcement.

In a statement, Col Dutton, National President of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA), said that the backlog of approvals to be cleared has impacted hundreds of homes across the nation over may years.

He welcomes both major parties’ commitments in regard to housing.

“Clearing the decks of delayed environmental approvals is critical to unlocking housing starts,” Dutton said.

“In a housing crisis, we must prioritise the supply of new homes or prices will remain out of reach for many Australians…”

“… The development industry remains committed to preserving and enhancing the environment and sees the initiative announced today as supporting our call for a streamlined and efficient environmental planning approval system co-ordinated between all levels of government.

”It’s positive that both major parties have prioritised tackling the national housing supply crisis and are prepared to pull multiple policy levers that will assist with supply of housing and the provision of affordable land.”

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