Queensland's Deputy Premier has taken the extraordinary step of taking charge of a south-east Queensland council's housing strategy after it failed to update its plan, which is more than 10 years old.
Local Government and Planning Minister Steven Miles wrote to the Redland City Council's chief executive officer on Thursday, saying it was "disappointing" council had been unable to update its housing strategy and he would be exercising his powers to "urgently" undertake it for them.
"Continuing to delay this work will significantly disadvantage the Redland community, especially in light of the critical housing supply challenges facing the region," his letter said.
"On this basis, I have decided to assist the council in undertaking this work."
Mr Miles said in a statement the current housing strategy for Redland City was dated 2011 and based on 2006 population data, "meaning it does not take into account significant population and housing challenges in the past decade".
"For example, the current strategy identified a dwelling target of 66,200 by 2031, however, as of 2021, there is already a total of 65,200 dwellings in the Redlands area," he said.
"Redlands has been asked repeatedly to update its housing strategy but has declined to do so."
"The people of Redlands – now and into the future – need affordable homes urgently."
Mr Miles said the purpose of the strategy was to "investigate housing supply and diversity in the Redland area" and consider any amendments needed to the city plan.
"Effective planning and management of growth is a shared responsibility of both state and local government," he said.
"The state government is committed to working with and supporting the council to ensure the strategy achieves the state interest for housing supply and diversity, as well as the council's objectives and community expectations in planning for growth in the Redland area.
"However, as this has been communicated on a number of occasions, I am now taking this extraordinary step to get this done.
"The Queensland government will also consider the need for additional infrastructure including roads, sewage and water, schools and community facilities that would support more housing in the region."
'State is responsible for planning': Redland Mayor
In a statement Redland City Mayor Karen Williams said Redland City was achieving the housing targets set for them by the state government.
She said the government had also signed off on their City Plan in 2018, while their current Redlands housing strategy took the city to 2031.
"It is also disappointing that the media was reporting on this decision before the Deputy Premier advised Council," she said.
"I spoke with the Deputy Premier just yesterday afternoon about housing; he indicated his willingness to work collaboratively with Council; and did not advise of his upcoming letter or his decision."
She said the state's latest land supply and development monitoring report in 2021 "showed Redland City had sufficient residential land to meet expected needs".
"…And is one of the few councils in south-east Queensland achieving its dwelling targets, in terms of supply and demand and housing mix, imposed by the SEQ regional plan," she said.
"Council has significantly progressed a new local plan for a new emerging community at South West Victoria Point and is working with the Queensland Government in progressing a Priority Growth Area located in Southern Redland Bay.
"Between them, these two communities will provide about 6,500 new dwellings.
"The Deputy Premier's move today makes it clear to the community that the state is responsible for planning."
The government said department officers would be available to support other councils on their housing strategy.
Calls for greater consistency across state
Q Shelter Executive Director Fiona Caniglia said the role of local government was "absolutely critical" for housing supply.
"Councils play such a major part in the development and planning schemes and the implementation of those planning schemes which essentially sets down how we identify and release land," she said.
"There are some outstanding examples of local governments working really hard to meet the local housing needs of constituents and partnering with the not-for-profit sector as well for example in the South Burnett who are partnering with community housing to achieving housing supply growth."
Tomorrow the state government will host a housing roundtable with community and stakeholder groups to discuss topics that will be on the agenda of the housing summit held next month.
Ms Caniglia said the peak body would like to see a greater consistency across the state in terms of the role of local government being defined to help them develop effective housing and homelessness action plans for the future.
"The important thing about the summit is that we really do understand that every sector has a critical role to play and the summit will fail unless every stakeholder group is at the table identifying their responsibilities and going away and making sure they take meaningful action so we shift the dial on the problem."
