A housing model planned for the Suburban Rail Loop has delivered zero affordable homes in central Melbourne despite being in place for nearly a decade.

The failings of the program, which lets developers exceed height limits in exchange for providing much-needed social housing, has prompted the Community Housing Industry Association to call for the state government to ditch the proposal along the SRL and instead mandate affordable housing.

The organisation’s latest report found there was not one affordable housing agreement made under the scheme since it began in Southbank and the CBD in 2016, despite 31,000 new homes having been approved in that time.

Community Housing Industry Association Victoria chief executive Sarah Toohey said it was clear voluntary schemes did not work and private developers should be forced to contribute affordable housing.

“The rezoning of these [SRL] precincts will create massive windfall gains to landowners in the area. It is reasonable to share these windfall gains across the community by requiring all new developments to include or contribute to social and affordable housing,” she said.

“It’s time for the Victorian government to stop hoping that private developers will volunteer to build social and affordable housing and instead make it mandatory.”

The voluntary public benefit uplift scheme in place in Southbank and Melbourne’s CBD allows developers to increase the density of buildings and build higher if they provide certain public benefits. These include having affordable housing, publicly accessible open space, and commercial office space.

Critics say the scheme could never result in significant affordable homes because an incentive like building office space will be far more profitable than discounted housing, despite being of questionable public benefit.

Toohey said the proposal for the SRL precincts was strikingly similar to that rolled out in the Melbourne CBD and Southbank and if introduced would produce few, if any, affordable homes.

In contrast, a mandatory scheme introduced in central Sydney in 1996 has resulted in the contribution of $400 million and more than 1500 affordable homes built or in planning, the report said.

“The Suburban Rail Loop will add tens of thousands of new homes around station precincts, but right now it’s not clear if any of them will be social or affordable housing,” Toohey said “We can’t leave the delivery of social housing in these precincts up to a voluntary scheme that we know from experience won’t work.

“While the Victorian government lists increasing social and affordable housing as an objective for SRL East, it has effectively surrendered this goal to the discretion of private developers.

“With no mandatory developer requirements, no social housing targets and no direct government funding to build social and affordable homes in the SRL precincts, meeting our communities’ diverse housing needs has been left to chance.”

The City of Melbourne said the uplift program was introduced with a promise from the state government to review it every year. But not one review has been completed, according to Town Hall.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece said the council had urged the state government to make planning changes to enable more affordable housing.

“We’ve long called for mandatory inclusionary zoning to increase the delivery of affordable housing and provide a level playing field for developers,” he said.

“Current uplift provisions are outdated and not delivering the homes needed. We’ve urged the Victorian government to make changes so more affordable housing can be delivered.”

Reece said the council was doing its part by delivering affordable housing across City of Melbourne owned sites, but without reform the city would face a serious shortfall.

The City of Melbourne’s 2020-2030 affordable housing strategy found existing controls had not delivered affordable homes at significant volume and recommended the council push for state government rule changes.

The Allan government has said Suburban Rail Loop East will enable 70,000 extra homes to be built in precincts around underground stations at Box Hill, Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Burwood and Cheltenham.

It said new planning rules in SRL neighbourhoods would help ensure buildings are well-designed, appropriate for the local area and include incentives for developers to create affordable housing.

According to the draft plans, this framework will operate alongside standard planning controls to encourage and unlock public value over the life of the structure plans for the six precincts.

A government spokesperson said it had already fast-tracked about 2000 homes in the SRL precincts in Box Hill and Clayton, which will include 10 per cent affordable housing.

The state government is holding public hearings for the $34.5 billion SRL East project, which includes plans for skyscrapers and housing clusters around new stations.

Councils are already flagging the uplift scheme as a key issue, warning against replicating the mistakes of the City of Melbourne, saying an ordinary person would not consider office space a benefit worthy of increased density.

Monash City Council said in its submission that offering faster planning approvals was a better incentive for affordable homes than increasing floor space.

Whitehorse Council also questioned the inclusion of office space in the scheme, which it said would be complex and costly to administer.

“It is difficult to understand what the public benefit of such floor space is,” it said in its submission.

Victorian Greens acting leader Sarah Mansfield said it was no surprise the scheme hadn’t led to a single affordable home, accusing Labor of giving handouts to developers instead of making housing cheaper for young people.

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