Housing showdown looms as chamber gears up for fight with council

The Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce will have some stern words for our city leaders with claims it has exposed a gross exaggeration of the amount of land available for new home builds.

Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Rohl

The Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce is expected to take the city leaders to task over what it thinks is a shortage of residential land that is stifling economic activity.

Representatives from the chamber will speak at a community breakfast this morning where they will outline their grievances with the Toowoomba Regional Council’s zoning strategy.

Chamber CEO Todd Rohl said a systematic housing shortage had put downward pressure on migration to the area, which had in turn led to a skills shortage.

“Without an ample supply of residential land, economic growth is at risk, housing affordability is a risk and individual housing choice is at risk,” he said.

Mr Rohl said he thought previous comments from the council about the supply of residential land were misleading.

“In August the council had rejected the observations from the city’s businesses at its housing crisis breakfast by proclaiming that there is three decades of land available for residential development in Toowoomba,” he said.

“Our members remain very concerned about the impact of the current housing crisis on local investment opportunities, future jobs and planned major projects in the region.”

The chamber will back its claim with a review of the land that is currently zoned for residential development.

“We assess if Toowoomba has enough residential land to meet the demand generated by population growth for the next 27 years’ as asserted by the council,” Mr Rohl said.

“It will also consider the council’s declaration that there are 4300 approved residential lots not yet released to the market.”

The event was held at the Armitage Centre.