The Southern Region Planning Team has re-drafted and re-exhibited the South East & Tablelands Regional Plan 2041, following an earlier exhibition round in August/September that we at Shelter were part of.
Our readers may be aware of the various submissions and presentations we have made to the Department of Planning & Environment over the past couple of years on their Regional Plan Reviews to 2041. We assert that these strategic documents need to be ambitious and direct in their setting of regional targets for social and affordable housing. We also routinely comment on the challenges facing regional towns and communities in relation to unsustainable greenfield sprawl and a rapidly changing climate.
The submission we made on the originally exhibited draft South East & Tablelands Regional Plan 2041 can be found here. We are pleased to note that some of our recommendations appeared to have been seriously considered by the Government and have made it into the re-exhibited version of the Plan. For instance, our commentary on the need to adequately assess cumulative social impacts on housing as a result of big infrastructure, mining, and other industry investments in the region has directly translated to a new action point in the Plan:
The re-exhibited Plan is also a lot stronger in its language on short term holiday letting as a housing stressor, rather than the previously evasive language employed to describe short term rental accommodation (âSTRAâ) as purely being a form of âhousing diversityâ. You can read more on our views about STRA in our State Election platform asks.