The Business Council is calling for a major overhaul of Australia's housing approval processes, putting forward new measures for local and state governments to speed up home approvals and boost supply, releasing the first recommendations in a landmark report.
The upcoming It's time to say yes to housing report is targeted at measures to drastically boost supply, with part one focused on improving the assessment and approval of new homes.
For Australia to meet the 1.2 million national housing target, a further 64,000 new homes would need to be built each year, compared to 2023-24.
The BCA is calling for:
- State-wide council report cards in every state/territory to transparently monitor the performance of local government approvals, including the time taken to make an assessment (from lodgment to construction approval);
- State government intervention powers to remove the planning authority of councils which continually underperform in the assessment of new homes and, conversely, funding to reward councils that are high performers;
- Elevating housing projects of significance to state governments for approval, including the approval of adjacent supporting infrastructure;
- An accountable new state government concierge service to monitor and speed up decisions and concurrence processes across government agencies;
- A new mechanism for housing builders to force a local or state government to make a decision, either to reject or approve, if a decision exceeds statutory timeframes; and
- Better approaches to community consultation that respond to legitimate concerns and strike a fairer balance between local voices and broader regional housing needs
Business Council Chief Executive Bran Black said these recommendations would be hard to implement, but tough decisions were needed to address Australia's housing supply crisis.
"We have a housing supply crisis in Australia and we need to turbo-charge the assessment and approval process so we get more homes built faster," Mr Black said.
"This supply crisis, driven by a shortfall, means demand for limited houses further pushes up prices and rents, driving higher inflation which hurts all Australians.
"Plain and simple, we need more supply, and we want to work with local and state governments to speed up their housing decisions, so builders can get on with the job of delivering places for people to live."
The BCA has recommended each state government adopt a council report card, with transparent public reporting of each council's housing assessment performance.
Mr Black said monitoring council performance, as has just been put in place in New South Wales, would provide vital information on which councils needed more support to fix barriers to approving more houses.
"I hear from members that some councils are highly professional, while others are unresponsive and can take months to make a decision, in some cases running down the clock because they can," Mr Black said.
The report also calls for a state intervention power that removes planning decision powers from councils which consistently fail to assess housing on time, and financial rewards for good performers.
State governments should also be able to assess and approve more residential housing projects deemed to be of state significance, rather than relying solely on council assessments.
"State governments are best able to balance local feedback with the broader economic and policy priorities faced by the community around the need for housing."
To meet the targeted 1.2 million new dwellings under the National Housing Accord over the next five years, Australia has to build 240,000 new homes every year on average. Based on the latest ABS dwelling completions data for 2023-24, Australia fell short of that by 64,000 new homes last financial year.
In the report, the BCA will outline a state concierge service which supports and coordinates approval and concurrence processes across all government departments and agencies, which can otherwise be significant hand breaks on the time taken to approve new housing projects. The Queensland model is often raised as good practice that should be replicated across the country.
The BCA's It's time to say yes to housing report will be released later in October and provides a number of policy recommendations to try and fix Australia's housing supply crisis.
