On target to reach housing goal

MILDURA is on target to achieve its Victorian Government quota of 8500 more homes by 2051 as part of policy to ease the state’s housing crisis.

However, Mildura Mayor Cr Helen Healy has warned the Government will have a role to play to ensure that ratepayers do not bear the full brunt of associated works needed to meet the target.

Cr Healy urged the Government to not take a one model fits all to what it described as a “fair and achievable” target to deliver more homes in regional Victoria over the next 30 years.

She said the municipality was already achieving close to 300 homes a year which would put Mildura on target to achieve the 2051 goal.

“With our long-term strategic planning around the various areas we are opening up and with the current rate of housing build that we are on track to achieve that,” she said.

“What is really important to acknowledge is that the government has a role to play in this.

“The infrastructure that we need to have in place before you can build; the drainage, the footpaths, roads et cetera, that is an impost on our ratepayers so we need government support.

“We are keen to go up in the CBD and to look at townhouses and going up a couple more floors on various buildings. that’s something we would like to see, but right now we feel that, yes, we can come close to or achieve the target.”

Cr Healy said Mildura, and regional Victoria, had different wants and needs than metropolitan councils which should also come into consideration.

“We do have some genuine unique differences to metropolitan Melbourne and the Mildura Older Irrigated Area is one of them, also the fact that we’re a 22,500-square-kilometre municipality with different challenges that we face which are very, very different to metro challenges,” she said.

“We do need more clarification about how the targets are to be implemented and how councils will be held accountable and we hear there is more coming from the State Government in regards to this.

“But we also need to continue our advocacy to work for more equitable funding for the infrastructure that we need to implement our building targets.”

Cr Healy said municipal officers and councillors always looking “20, 30, 50 years in advance” to which areas would be next to open to development.

“You can’t just open land willy-nilly,” she said.

“You have got to look at all the infrastructure that’s required and all the agencies, most of them State Government agencies, that you have got to work with before you ever get to opening land up to the market, but I think we’re doing pretty well.”

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said regional councils were already doing great work to deliver more housing.

“We’ll continue to work with them to make sure they have the support they need to get more homes off the ground,” she said.