By Susan Thompson. This is an edited version of the ‘Healthy Built Environments’ column published in the September 2017 issue of New Planner. Healthy planning is about supporting the wellbeing of all people, no matter where they live, their age, physical and mental abilities, and irrespective of their socio-economic status. In this ‘urban’ century, when more […]
Entries Tagged as 'Government'
Beyond the city – healthy built environments in regional and rural localities
September 18th, 2017 · No Comments · Government, Sustainability, Wellbeing
Tags:Planning
Saving Sirius: why heritage protection should include social housing
July 28th, 2017 · No Comments · Government, Law, Sydney, urban renewal
By Chris Martin, UNSW. Originally published on The Conversation. Campaigners to save Sydney’s landmark Sirius building from demolition had a significant legal win this week. Last year, the then state heritage minister, Mark Speakman, refused to list the Brutalist block of public housing apartments on the New South Wales Heritage Register. Doing so would reduce the […]
Tags:Social housing
Sydney must heed lessons of London affordable housing fiasco
July 20th, 2017 · No Comments · Government, Housing supply, Sydney, urban renewal
By Hal Pawson, Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre. A recent Sydney Morning Herald feature on urban renewal in London shone an interesting and quite revealing spotlight on a high profile project with a major Australian connection. Crucially, though this rather uncritical account completely missed the aspect of the story with the greatest direct relevance […]
Tenants’ calls for safe public housing fall on deaf ears
June 28th, 2017 · 1 Comment · Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Tenancy
By Gemma McKinnon, UNSW. I have worked and researched in housing law for one-third of my life. When news of the Grenfell Tower fire broke, our network of tenant advocates and housing researchers was heartbroken and angry, but not necessarily surprised. People who know public housing in New South Wales (including the residents themselves) know […]
Tags:Social housing
Two pictures of rental housing stress and vulnerability zero in on areas of need
May 18th, 2017 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Government, Housing, Housing supply, Regions
The Rental Vulnerability Index for Queensland shows the cumulative impact of factors affecting renters across the state. City Futures Research Centre By Chris Martin, UNSW and Laurence Troy, UNSW. Originally published on The Conversation. Two new tools for measuring and visualising problems in our rental housing system are in the media this week. They have similar […]
Tags:Affordable housing
Budget 2017 charts new social and affordable housing reform agenda
May 12th, 2017 · No Comments · Finance, Government, Housing, Housing supply, urban renewal
By Chris Martin, UNSW and Hal Pawson, UNSW. Originally published on The Conversation. Under pressure to tackle deepening housing affordability problems, Treasurer Scott Morrison has included various housing policy measures in his budget, some relating to Australia’s small sector of social and affordable housing. One headline-grabber is the creation of a new entity, the National Housing […]
Can Institutional Funding be Channelled into Rental Housing?
May 3rd, 2017 · No Comments · Finance, Government, Housing supply, Tenancy
By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published at John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations. Channelling institutional finance into affordable rental housing has long been a ‘holy grail’ urban policy aspiration. Recent developments suggest that this may be edging towards reality. Scott Morrison last month re-stated the long-professed ‘holy grail’ ambition to engage institutional […]
Tags:Affordable housing
Ready for growth? Has Australia’s affordable housing industry got what it takes?
April 20th, 2017 · No Comments · Finance, Government, Housing
By Vivienne Milligan and Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. With a shortfall of affordable rental homes that reached 271,000 in 2011 and a crumbling public housing system, it’s encouraging to note Scott Morrison’s recent recognition that private investment in low cost rental provision must be stepped up and that government can help to make […]
Unpacking Urban Renewal in Australia: politics, policies…and polarisation?
April 5th, 2017 · No Comments · Government, Housing, Sydney, urban renewal
By Laura Crommelin, City Futures Research Centre. A trio of new research papers from the City Futures team are now available online, each of which sheds light on a different aspect of the complex process of urban renewal. Together the papers identify the politics that drive urban renewal, examine the policies used to implement it, […]
Tags:Planning
Flying into uncertainty: Western Sydney’s ‘aerotropolis’ poses more questions than answers
March 23rd, 2017 · No Comments · Cities, Government, Guest appearance, Sydney, Transport
The uncertainties about the new Badgerys Creek airport in Western Sydney are raising many questions that only good governance can resolve. from www.shutterstock.com By Robert Freestone, UNSW While Melburnians sombrely reflect on the risks of intensive commercial development near airport runways, Sydneysiders are enthusiastically scoping the development spin-offs that will come with their new airport in […]
Tags:Planning