Talking Point: More than nine in ten Hobart DAs approved — yet many don’t see the light of day

HELEN BURNET: Hobart must work to improve business confidence

TEAMWORK: The council is working hard to find solutions to the housing crisis. We need to reflect on what we can more do to improve business confidence.

The January dwelling permit statistics for the Hobart municipality have prompted considerable commentary.

In 2018, 158 dwellings received building permits from the Hobart City Council.

In 2019, 225 dwellings were approved. Over the past three years, 473 dwellings were built.

The trend in 2019-2020 over 12 months for building permits issued is still positive. Building data tendency is to ebb and flow, so figures over a longer time period give a more meaningful picture.

While there has been a slowing of building permit issues from January 2019 to January 2020, the trends over the past four years are reassuring.

The difficulty finding tradies, the number of development applications and a Hobart skyline with plenty of cranes support this trend.

There are more multi-dwelling developments under construction (examples include 66 Burnett St, the Second Office building in Argyle St and the University of Tasmania dwellings at the old Red Cross site in Melville St).

Importantly, there are also multi-dwelling social housing projects being constructed within the municipality. They include more dwellings at the old Waratah Hotel site, in Goulburn St, at Bethlehem House, and another in South Hobart.

Hobart is open for development that meet housing needs and are consistent with the values that citizens identify as important, including heritage and public amenity considerations.

Worldwide events may mean uncertain times ahead, but data supports that current trends are positive for Hobart.

Alderman Simon Behrakis contends that HCC is not doing enough to address the housing crisis (Letters, March 6). I beg to differ: HCC has established the Housing and Homelessness Reference Group, opened the Safe Night Space with our partners, The Salvation Army and the City Mission. With others, we successfully lobbied to retire the state’s federal housing debt.

Programs run from our Community Life division support vulnerable people through various social programs. I am proud of what we have achieved.

Hobart City Council has dedicated staff and elected members who go above the call of duty for their community.

Hobart is seen, perhaps more than ever, as a great place to live and our population is increasing.

That there is a need for more housing particularly for younger people wishing to enter the property market and those with limited means is well appreciated by the council.

The council has approved a number of developments for multi-apartments which have not seen the light of day. Could it be that there is too much speculation by some developers? Not every failure of a housing development to materialise is of the council’s making.

More than 90 per cent of development applications are given the green light, and yet circumstances beyond the Council’s remit may mean they are never built.

It is true that it would be good to have more dwellings to approve in the current housing crisis.

As part of the scope of the Central Hobart Precinct Plan, a report on the socioeconomic and environmental opportunities for Hobart will shortly come to Council. The Precinct Plan will identify more inner city sites for dwellings.

It is alarmist, inaccurate and unhelpful to suggest Hobart is not “open for business”. The council is working hard to find solutions to the housing crisis. As city leaders, we need to reflect on what we can more do to improve business confidence. Acting as a team will help more than negative comments and poor interpretation of the available data.

Helen Burnet is Hobart Deputy Lord Mayor and chair of the council’s City Planning Committee.