Recent visitors to Newcastle will have noticed the large amount of urban development that has taken place. Visitors will also note the large tracts of undeveloped land close to the harbour – much of it public land.
The NSW Government is reshaping its approach to the development of the very large three hectare Honeysuckle HQ waterfront development site.
Shelter NSW commends the NSW Government for overturning the previous plan to sell the land without any requirement that social and affordable housing was developed in the future precinct. Under new requirements, the Government will require 30 per cent social and affordable housing on the future site.
This is very welcome change but we urge the Government to treat the 30 per cent as a ‘floor’ not a ‘ceiling’ on its ambition for the site and to require that the affordable rental housing being delivered be in perpetuity and by the Not-for-Profit Community Housing sector.
Even without access to these paywalled articles from the Newcastle Herald you can see that the Government’s plans are attracting a lot of attention:
- Social, affordable housing plan for honeysuckle waterfront-site (October 18) – details the NSW Government imposing tougher social and affordable requirements on this big public site
- More details revealed on honeysuckle affordable housing target (October 20)
- Doubts over viability of social housing targets for inner Newcastle (October 28) where some private developers and current homeowners warn that social housing targets are “likely to kill development