Urban sprawl driving inequality, says federal housing minister
Updated ,first published
Two hundred and fifty thousand new residents will live in new greenfield homes without any public amenities in Sydney’s north-west end, a mayor has warned, blaming a chronic lack of developer funding and councils’ inability to obtain more cash.
Blacktown City Council, Sydney’s largest local government by population, is at the forefront of much of the region’s suburban growth. But at Friday’s Sydney Summit, chief executive Kerry Robinson warned the new green spaces were being built to include “no pools, no libraries, no meeting rooms. Not even one”.
That’s because the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure classifies facilities such as pools, libraries, community meeting spaces and indoor recreation centers as “non-essential.”
Under state law, councils can require developers building in their area to pay a levy to contribute to the cost of infrastructure; but the only ones deemed “essential” are mostly roads and water systems. An upper limit on these contributions was introduced in 2012 and has not been adjusted for inflation.
The effect is that cash-strapped municipalities cannot afford to create the services necessary for prosperity.
“What we’re doing is creating a social deficit that no one needs to realize.” [or] Be accountable, because this is happening slowly,” Robinson told the UN-backed summit hosted by Sydney think tank Committee. reporter. “But in the future we will look back and say, ‘How did we let this completely ridiculous thing happen?’ “There will come a time when we will ask.”
Due to geography, urban sprawl (the process of converting mostly rural land into low-density housing, often without appropriate infrastructure) has occurred mostly in western Sydney. Federal Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told the conference the process was creating inequality on the city’s streets.
“Urban sprawl is a silent cause of inequality,” he said. “People living on the edges of our major cities face hotter commutes, higher transport costs and fewer job opportunities.
“We can choose to create more inequality in our cities, or we can choose to create a modern, democratic city where everyone acts fairly.”
While seemingly endless expansion covers up what was once a multitude of planning errors, change is afoot. Grattan Institute managing director Aruna Sathanapally said sprawl struggles had forced the government to focus on infill development.
“The housing situation we face now has been looming over us for a very long time, but I will say that sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. It was easier to avoid harsh conversations about density when the government could build infrastructure and enable sprawl.”
Robinson, who has led Blacktown council for 12 years, said Australia and the US already knew what happened in the 1950s and 60s when fringe communities were built without infrastructure: there was “tremendous isolation”.
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CORRECTION
A previous version of this article stated that Blacktown City Council was Sydney’s largest council in terms of geographical size. In fact, it is the largest in terms of population.
Anthony Segaert is The Sydney Morning Herald’s Parramatta bureau chief. He was previously an urban affairs reporter.Connect with: X or email.
