Mount Isa City Council's submission to the latest housing inquiry is worth looking at in more detail.
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The Federal Government Inquiry into housing affordability and supply in Australia. is looking into the impact of taxes, charges and regulatory settings on housing supply, identifying factors that promote or housing supply and examining the effectiveness of initiatives to improve housing supply.
The timeframe for submissions is short so the matter was discussed at Wednesday's council meeting.
By way of background Council said if Mount Isa is to be a location that attracts a diversity of people then it needs a diversity of housing stock and Council needs to commence a planning processes to renew and regenerate housing stock and plan new housing.
Mount Isa has not had a new suburb since Healy Heights though plans for a new suburb at the adjacent Gliderport have long been at the back of the agenda.
Its stocks have risen and fallen with the boom-bust cycle of the mining industry but at present Council believes "there is strong demand for all types of housing, low vacancy rates, as well as appropriate yields on property investment."
Council wants governments to invest in community building and housing renewal and these funds could be used to improve the streetscape, upgrade passive and active recreation areas.
It wants the feds to install "trunk infrastructure" in greenfield developments, such as the arterial roads, energy, water and sewer, and fibre.
It also wants a binding commitment from state and federal as to how many houses they would lease and over what timeframe. This would allow Council consider a staged development and they would need a diversity of accommodation options to reduce the reliance on temporary accommodation.
Council also wants to see affordable housing options in any greenfield redevelopment "undertaken in a manner that does not facilitate areas of disadvantage but rather integrates different housing uses in a seamless way."
There are some good ideas here that I hope do not get relegated to a dusty shelf in Canberra.