TRANSCRIPT:
My question is for the Minister for Planning, and I ask: how will the government help councils that are struggling to provide effective housing options for current and prospective residents?
Within some LGAs in the Euroa electorate we are seeing developers leave in droves due to several concerns with the planning capacity of local councils.
Developers are concerned with the significant delays, issues with receiving permits, zoning changes and a lack of transparency.
These towns cannot afford to have prospective developers take their business elsewhere, particularly when they are providing housing options at a time when they are so desperately needed. Over the last year the Strathbogie shire saw the largest rise in median rental prices across the entire state, up 19.1 per cent to $420 a week.
In addition to the rising rental costs, homelessness is already a concern in my electorate: from 2012 to 2019, 1183 people in the Mitchell, Strathbogie and Benalla LGAs required support from specialised homeless services, with that number rising. I ask that we look for a planning flying squad and find ways to intervene and offer expertise to avert some of these issues.