Big delay in response to Review of Social and ­Affordable Housing Regulation

Tenants’ and homeless services groups, as well as some Labor figures, have expressed their dismay at the Andrews and Allan governments’ major delay to a housing review.

The Andrews and Allan governments took 2½ years to ­respond to a review of social and affordable housing it commissioned to help build more homes.

Tenants’ and homeless services groups, as well as some Labor figures, responded with dismay to the delay, and to the fact the government rejected regulating the emerging ­“affordable housing” sector.

In the period between when the Review of Social and ­Affordable Housing Regulation was commissioned and the government’s response, released shortly before Christmas, the state’s public housing waiting list ballooned by about 8000 families.

The review, handed to then ­assistant treasurer Danny Pearson in May 2022, includes 44 recommendations including to fix complaints mechanisms, streamline regulations and boost growth in the sector.

The Andrews and Allan governments took 2½ years to ­respond to a review of social and affordable housing. Picture: Ian Currie

In December, the government issued a seven-page ­response, the first page of which listed initiatives it had previously undertaken.

About half of the panel’s recommendations were accepted in full, while most others would require “further work” and three were rejected outright including regulating affordable housing.

One scheme that recently began provides housing on three-year contracts with rents set at least 10 per cent less than market rates, for families earning up to $132,000 in metro areas and $96,000 in regional Victoria.

But there is no central register of properties that have been subsidised, and concerns have been raised in the social services sector about rents reverting to market rates.

The government issued a seven-page ­response in December. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Opposition housing spokesman Richard Riordan said Victoria’s most vulnerable families were waiting years for housing and the “tired Allan government has no new ideas”.

Council to Homeless Persons CEO Deborah Di Natale also said the social housing waiting list had recently exploded while rents had “surged” in the time it took to respond to the review.

“With more and more Victorians being pushed to the brink of homelessness, urgent government action is needed,” Ms Di Natale said.

“We need at least 6000 new social housing homes built each year for a decade to tackle the urgent housing crisis.”

Victorian Public Tenants Association chief executive Katelyn Butterss said it was “disappointing” to see the dismissal of a recommendation to regulate affordable housing.

A Government spokesman said a nationally consistent definition of affordable housing is required before regulation, and defended Labor’s record on housing, which includes spending $6.3bn on 13,300 “modern, accessible and energy efficient homes”.