The Planning Institute of Australia has welcomed National Cabinet’s “Planning Reform Blueprint” as a step towards more housing diversity to meet Australia’s changing housing needs.

“Planning has an important role to play in enabling more homes to meet Australia’s diverse housing needs over the long-term,” Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) CEO Matt Collins said.

“We are encouraged by the Planning Reform Blueprint’s commitment to invest in good planning through updated strategic planning, better community engagement, and better resourcing for planning professionals working in local government,” Mr Collins said.

“We are also pleased to see a focus on the right housing in the right locations, including support for more medium-density housing close to infrastructure, services and jobs,” he said.

Mr Collins said many of the initiatives contained in the Planning Reform Blueprint reflected recommendations contained in PIA’s recent policy report, “Planning for the housing we need”.

“We still need to see more detail about how each state and territory will take the blueprint’s commitments forward, and we look forward to working with governments to ensure good planning for great places,” he said.

Mr Collins also said it was important to recognise that whilst planning regulates the location and type of new housing, it doesn’t control the speed with which housing is developed.

“Whilst planning can enable the right housing in the right place, planning alone can’t deliver more houses because the decision to act on planning approvals largely rests with property owners and developers,” he said.

“Developers and property owners make the decision to build based on a range of factors including the availability and cost of finance, taxation settings, sales rates, profitability, and other market factors,” he said.

“It is essential that policy-makers are looking at the full range of policy reform to ensure Australia’s housing challenges are holistically addressed – that means working to address broader issues such as supply chain constraints, labour shortages and more,” he said.

Enjoying Sourceable articles? Subscribe for Free and receive daily updates of all articles which are published on our site

Want to grow your sales, reach more new clients and expand your client base across Australia’s design and construction sector?

Advertise on Sourceable and have your business seen by the thousands of architects, engineers, builders/construction contractors, subcontractors/trade contractors, property developers and building industry suppliers who read our stories across the civil, commercial and residential construction sector