The ACT government will accelerate renewal of ageing public housing and add more properties as it attempts to relocate tenants affected by the redevelopment of Northbourne Avenue to within 800 metres of the corridor.
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Housing Minister Shane Rattenbury and Treasurer Andrew Barr said Tuesday's cabinet meeting resolved to give existing tenants the option to relocate within the city or move to Canberra's inner north.
An internal light rail project plan leaked to The Canberra Times in May suggested the Gungahlin fringe area could include more townhouses and new apartments, and ''pockets of public housing within master-planned projects''.
Mr Rattenbury said new developments around Canberra would include public housing to maintain the existing "salt and pepper" approach, and the government would provide modest increases in social housing through new public-private partnerships and intelligent design.
He said no immediate costs were considered by the cabinet but much of the government's housing stock was ageing and needed to be upgraded.
"We must respond to public housing waiting times and expand our efforts to build new and more energy-efficient housing in smaller complexes," Mr Rattenbury said.
Tenants affected by the proposed development of the Northbourne Avenue area will be given the option of living within 800 metres of the corridor, including Flemington Road.
Where tenants cannot receive their first preference accommodation, a decision will be made in co-operation with the newly established tenancy taskforce.
"Currently the ACT has approximately 7 per cent of our total houses as public housing," Mr Rattenbury said.
"This figure has not moved greatly in many years, and [the] cabinet outcome recognises that the government needs to consider ways of growing the social housing stock across the board.''
Advocacy organisation ACT Shelter called on Chief Minister Katy Gallagher this week to consider affordable housing as she reorganises her cabinet and creates a new ministry this week.
Chairwoman Susan Conroy said a responsible minister could provide effective improvements in communication and outcomes for social housing tenants.
She said streamlining planning, land and social housing would see affordable housing receive appropriate attention.
"ACT Shelter would like to see affordable housing and housing affordability generally given prominence in the portfolio spread,'' Ms Conroy said.
"Ideally, affordable housing should be a separate portfolio responsibility of one minister or form part of the name of their portfolio. At the very least, housing in general should be more prominent within both the economic development and urban planning portfolios, and closer linkages forged with the area of community housing."
Ginninderra MLA Yvette Berry said expanding the salt and pepper policy into new suburbs was critical to retaining Canberra's reputation as a desirable place to live.
''I'm glad that cabinet has agreed with the principle that deciding where to put public housing shouldn't be determined by the land value of the suburb,'' Ms Berry said.
She said it was regrettable that public housing stock had fallen below 10 per cent in the ACT.
''I think that future governments are going to have to look at investing in additional public housing to meet demands of our growing city,'' she said.
