Related Projects

• Housing policy and sustainable urban development: evaluating the use of local housing strategies in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria
• Housing and income inequalities in the city
• Reviewing methods for evaluating the costs and benefits of major city shaping infrastructure projects (Investigative Panel)
• Towards a new development model for housing regeneration in greyfield precincts (Investigative Panel)

Partnership working in the design and delivery of housing policy

Summary

Project Number: 70588
Research Theme: Public_and_Community_housing, Economics_Modelling
Project Leader: Pinnegar, Simon
Funding Year: 2009
Research Centre: UNSW-UWS

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 142: Making partnerships work in the design and delivery of housing and urban renewal policy and programs

Successful cross sector partnerships are responsive to local institutional contexts, market conditions and different community needs and expectations. Place and locality provide the basis of a shared vision for partnership working that includes both built form and people focussed outcomes. This Research and Policy Bulletin provides details of the key findings and policy implications from the completed AHURI research project Partnership working in the design and delivery of housing policy.

Download the PDF
289KB PDF Document

Description

Over the past decade, partnerships between government, private and not-for-profit sectors have emerged in the delivery of services and infrastructure in Australia. A diverse range of models and frameworks are being developed which encourage collaboration in long-term partnerships on the grounds of mutual benefit.

This research draws upon interviews with over 40 experts, practitioners and policy-makers involved in housing and urban renewal projects in Australia (for example Bonnyrigg in NSW and Kensington in Victoria), and those involved in establishing and building partnerships for affordable housing provision through the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS).

The study found that:

• PPPs working in the Australian housing and urban policy context has been characterised by a limited number of high-profile initiatives.
• Locking in partners over long periods of time may be problematic as circumstances change (e.g. where cyclical downturns undermine viability or where policy objectives change over time). However partnerships may nevertheless make sense for all partners at particular points in time.
• Rationales for PPPs should not be based only on comparison with public-only provision, but should be judged relative to what is best for the community or place involved. Context, place and community are important in helping shape PPPs (such as those involved in urban renewal). Determining the spatial boundaries for a project helps the process for agreeing shared outcomes, underpinning the rationale for collaboration and helping determine the most appropriate form that partnership working might take.
• PPPs that share risks between partners appropriately may yield public benefits, but not for relatively straightforward activities for which such a complex relationship would not seem to be appropriate.
• A range of potential models could be adopted, but encouraging different approaches and flexibility or innovation reduces the potential to provide certainty, build scale, and therefore market interest. For example model variability can arise because of the need to permit a degree of local determination. There has also been pressure to permit flexibility and innovation in relation to NRAS projects, but this has added to the complexity for policy development and delivery.
• PPPs increase the need for coordination across different government departments, consistent regulatory frameworks, and the need for clear strategic lines of accountability. Success is dependent upon appropriate platforms for disclosure of information so that risks can be priced by the market and problems can be shared. By contrast, private sector recourse to ‘commercial in confidence’ considerations often undermines opportunities for sharing of best practice as programs and initiatives mature.
  

More Information

Final Report: No. 163: Partnership working in the design and delivery of housing policy and programs
626 KB PDF Document

Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 142: Making partnerships work in the design and delivery of housing and urban renewal policy and programs
289KB PDF Document