By Hal Pawson, Associate Director, CFRC The pitch to replace stamp duty with a broad-based land tax has recently seen a new surge of advocacy. Just in the past couple of weeks the Reserve Bank Governor together with state Treasurers in both NSW and Victoria have all weighed into this debate once again, arguing that […]
Far-reaching housing tax reform could be back on the agenda
May 10th, 2020 · No Comments · Uncategorized
Why City Futures backs social housing stimulus plan
May 5th, 2020 · No Comments · Economy, Government, Housing supply, Pandemic
By Bill Randolph, Director, City Futures Research Centre With Australia’s economy taking a record-breaking pandemic hit, governments now face the huge challenge of reviving employment as the health crisis subsides. It’s widely agreed that a stimulus spending program should be a central plank of the recovery plan. Construction is an obvious stimulus target, since, […]
Tags:Affordable housing
We must act on homelessness before COVID-19 winter
April 26th, 2020 · No Comments · Housing, Pandemic
By Anne O’Brien and Hal Pawson The homeless need to be in housing before winter sets in and while the renewed spread of COVID-19 remains a threat. Without this, people could be dying without any support. And because rough sleepers often live in close proximity to each other, unable to keep clean or wash their […]
Tags:COVID-19·homelessness
Siloed construction industry reform will fail: We need systems thinking
October 11th, 2019 · No Comments · Uncategorized
By Prof Martin Loosemore, UNSW First published in the Fifth Estate. Read the original article here. What is interesting about Dame Judith Hackitt’s final report that was commissioned by the UK government following the Grenfell Tower disaster is that it didn’t pin the blame on the cladding, but identified a wider systemic problem in the […]
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Does NSW really need to double its social housing output?
June 23rd, 2018 · No Comments · Uncategorized
By: Hal Pawson, Associate Director, CFRC ‘Homelessness: NSW government ‘must double public housing’ soberly declared the Daily Telegraph’s Saturday headline. This, above a story warning that ‘The NSW government needs to double the amount of social and affordable housing it aims to build to prevent a huge leap in homelessness’ according to ‘experts’. Further, ‘the […]
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Public housing transfers move to a new level
January 23rd, 2017 · 1 Comment · Government, Housing supply
By Hal Pawson, Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre With the New South Wales Government’s recently announced tranche of public housing transfers to not-for-profit providers, Australia’s community housing sector is set for a new growth spurt. The addition of the 14,700 former Housing NSW properties – the largest transfer program yet – will expand existing […]
Too little…but not too late?
November 29th, 2016 · No Comments · Cities, Housing supply, Planning reform, urban renewal
by Judy Stubbs, Judith Stubbs Associates Like most public policy announcements, the Greater Sydney Commission’s recent release of its six Draft District Plans has some good news, and some news that housing researchers and public interest bodies would likely regard as not so good. GSC District Plans – two steps forward In many ways, the […]
The Greater Sydney Commission could deliver a step-change policy advance on affordable housing
November 2nd, 2016 · No Comments · Planning reform
The latest CityWest Housing affordable rental block, Portman Street, Zetland, under construction in 2015 Make no mistake; in the ranking of Australian urban governance innovations, the founding of the Greater Sydney Commission looks set to prove a major league event. Established by the NSW Government at the start of 2016, the GSC’s role is to […]
Productivity Commission stance could hold potential for social housing gains
September 27th, 2016 · No Comments · Government
By Hal Pawson, Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published at The Conversation. The new Productivity Commission report favouring “greater competition, contestability and user choice” in social housing has caused concern among advocates for low-income tenants. The report is an interim output from an ongoing review of the nation’s human services – including public […]
Tags:Social housing
More questions than answers in NSW ‘strategic housing’ announcement
January 26th, 2016 · 1 Comment · Government, Housing supply, Uncategorized
By Hal Pawson and Vivienne Milligan Finally, the long wait is over. Five years after taking office the State Government’s Family and Community Services Department (FACS) has at last pronounced on ‘Future Directions for Social Housing in NSW’. All of the paper’s broad themes – modernisation, additional supply and supporting tenants – will resonate with the […]
Tags:Social housing