The ACT government has stopped short of pledging to maintain the current levels of public housing stock at 7.12 per cent of all housing in the territory, but will examine restrictions on the sale of affordable homes listed in its database.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The government has indicated its path on affordable housing in a response to a 2018-19 Assembly Estimates committee report, which earlier this year urged the government to at least maintain current levels of public housing stock.
Despite the committee's urging, and a Greens motion that passed the Assembly with Liberal support on the matter earlier this year, the government has only agreed to the recommendation in principle.
The proportion of public housing in Canberra has fallen from 12.4 per cent almost 30 years ago to 7.1 per cent this year, while the government instead replaces 1288 ageing public housing dwellings, but not growing the total pool.
The government's response said that targets for affordable, community and public housing were informed by the location, suitability and development potential of land it released, and they also needed to consider the development capacity of the community housing sector, Housing ACT and the impact on the territory's budget.
That response does not differ from its evidence given during the Estimates hearings on the issue, and follows the government calling in a $50 million to the territory's largest community housing provider, CHC, which has affected its capacity to deliver greater numbers of community housing.
While Housing Minister Yvette Berry is yet to release a long-awaited affordable housing strategy, promised at the 2016 election, the government's response indicates its current provision of public, social and community housing is unlikely to change significantly in the near future.
But in response to another Estimates committee recommendation, to include requirements about the on-sale of homes on the government's affordable homes database, the government said it was investigating potential restrictions as part of the housing strategy.
Such restrictions have been a sore point for current and past territory Labor governments, after some higher-income users of the land rent scheme used it to buy homes at lower-than-market rates, despite being able to afford market purchase prices.
Across the Estimates committee's 226 recommendations, the government has agreed wholly to 113 recommendations, agreed in principle to 44, agreed in part to eight, noted 55 and not agreed to six recommendations.
The government also rejected publishing the number and cost of invoices relating to Floriade 2017, which overspent its budget by more than $1 million, and also rejected extending applications for a few months for the greyhound industry transition package.
