Infrastructure Australia has released the latest installment in their Reform Series. Planning Liveable Cities recommends substantial planning, funding and governance reforms to ensure Australia’s governments are appropriately coordinating the delivery of new housing in growing cities with the additional infrastructure and services needed to support it.
Infrastructure Australia Executive Director of Policy and Research, Peter Colacino said, “Around the country, governments are structured to deliver outcomes for sectors, such as transport, education, and health services, rather than outcomes for a ‘place’ and a community. This can lead to siloed planning and decision-making, which often leads to poor outcomes for communities.
“Planning Liveable Cities recommends a greater focus on strategic-level planning at a ‘place’ level, including prioritising collaboration with the community to identify economic and social priorities that should not be compromised in order to cater for growth.”
UDIA Victoria welcomes the report and its findings, and together with industry, is ready to support the Victorian State Government with system reform measures that increase Victoria’s liveability.
Read on for the report’s key findings and recommendations. A link to the full report is provided below.
Finding 1 – Infrastructure delivery is struggling to keep pace with rapid population growth in our major cities.
Recommendation 1: The Australian Government should establish a process to better strategically plan for Australia’s future population.
Recommendation 2: Planning systems should focus the weight of decision-making on strategic level planning
Finding 2 – Australia’s three-tiered governance structure can make it challenging to consistently deliver liveable places.
Recommendation 3: Governance arrangements with appropriate funding, resourcing, and accountability arrangements are essential to ensuring that strategic metropolitan plans are translated into tangible local outcomes
Recommendation 4: Enhancing existing incentive mechanisms that promote improved governance and better collaboration between all levels of government will help to achieve liveable outcomes in our largest cities
Finding 3 – Sector-led infrastructure planning can lead to uncoordinated outcomes for communities.
Recommendation 5: In areas of high growth, governments should identify and assess the full range of economic and social infrastructure required at a ‘place’ level.
Finding 4 – Communities are increasingly disappointed by their experience of growth
Recommendation 6: Improving the quality, demonstrated outcomes, and longevity of community engagement is critical to the successful growth of our largest cities.
Finding 5 – Our infrastructure funding mechanisms have not kept pace with growth.
Recommendation 7: Governments should undertake an independent review of local and state infrastructure funding mechanisms and policies.
Recommendation 8: Making better use of existing infrastructure assets and networks will deliver improved outcomes for both communities and governments.
Finding 6 – Governments and industry lack a shared understanding of the capacity of different infrastructure networks.
Recommendation 9: Our largest cities require a more coordinated, transparent and standardised understanding of current and future infrastructure capacity to help governments optimise infrastructure use and make better investment decisions.
Read more / Full Report
