Big business weighs in on housing crisis

A powerful big business lobby group is calling for major reforms as part of “urgent action” to boost housing supply in Australia.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) made 29 recommendations in a report released on Monday that largely targeted regulatory changes, including changes to planning and approval processes, zoning and heritage management.

The peak body’s chief executive said all levels of government needed to cooperate, adding that reforms had to be led federally.

“Australia has a housing supply crisis and we need urgent action from all levels of government to fix it,” BCA chief executive Bran Black said.

“Our prosperity is being held back because many Australians can’t buy a home or are paying too much rent, and fixing this issue means putting hard but important policy changes on the table.”

He said the BCA wanted the federal government to “create a new national reform fund … that incentivises states to fix regulation and planning bottlenecks that hold back homes being built.”

“Governments at all levels have recognised the importance of supply as the real solution to our housing challenge,” Mr Black said.

“We back many of the measures that are already being rolled out, but the scale of the task before us remains immense, and so we need every good reform on the table if we’re to hit our targets.”

Aside from a national reform fund, similar to one rolled out under the Howard government, the BCA recommended rezoning land to legalise housing in sought-after areas and introducing faster approval processes, partly by giving state and territory governments new powers to intervene.

The council also identified building infrastructure to support new housing as critical, which is the core of the Coalition’s newly unveiled housing plan.

The opposition’s long awaited housing policy, announced on Saturday, pledged $5bn on infrastructure to speed up the development of greenfield sites.

But the Albanese government has said it was already doing that, and senior ministers have accused the Coalition of copying their policy.

The BCA’s report also said changes needed to happen in the workforce, calling for more incentives for young Australians to take up trades, as well as immigration policies that attracted skilled migrants.

“We urgently need to address Australia’s skills shortage crisis, because we can’t build homes if we don’t have enough tradies to build them,” Mr Black said.

The council also said worksites needed to change, warning that corruption was endangering workers and making building sites unsafe.

“We need to ensure building sites are lawful and safe places to work,” Mr Black said.

“Stamping out criminal conduct, unlawful behaviour and stand-over tactics is key to fixing the productivity problem on building sites across the country.”

With skyrocketing house prices and rent beginning to hit outside of Australia’s biggest cities, housing affordability is top-of-mind ahead of next year’s election.

Paired with rising food costs, non-profits have warned Australians are increasingly skipping meals just to make their rent.