Briefs

High house prices (particularly in Sydney and Melbourne) have led to calls for the easing of supply-side restrictions such as opening up more land for development and speeding up the planning approval process. But will increasing the supply of new homes lead to more affordable housing for low-income households?

Between 2006 and 2011, the rate of growth in Australia’s population (8.3%) was slightly lower than the rate that new households formed (8.6%). This indicates that although the population was increasing the new households kept forming at a faster rate, meaning that there were sufficient dwellings available and affordable for them to move in to and ‘form’ households in.

With the Australian Government issuing a discussion paper in late 2016 into ‘Using value capture to help deliver major land transport infrastructure’, it is important to understand what value capture is and how it might be levied.

The Australian Government’s City Deals are a way for governments, industry and local communities to ‘develop collective plans for growth and commit to the actions, investments, reforms and governance needed to implement them.’ By bringing together all levels of government, the private sector and the community, City Deals aim to provide a coordinated investment plan for capital cities and urban regions.

The Australian Government is developing a City Deals program that is modeled on the UK Government’s City Deal policy. As part of the first wave of its City Deals which it approved in 2012, the UK Government committed £2.3 billion to around 40 programs in eight cities spread over 30 years. But just what is a UK City Deal?