State Government Strong-Arms Council on Housing Strategy

As pressure builds on the Queensland government to address housing supply issues, it has taken the extraordinary step of commandeering the Redland City Council’s housing strategy. 

In a letter sent to the Redland City Council this week the Deputy Premier Steven Miles said he would be exercising powers under the planning act to “urgently undertake the strategy and consider what amendments are needed to the City Plan to facilitate the range of housing needs identified by the strategy”.

Miles, who is also Minister for Local Government and Planning, had warned the council in June this year that he would use his ministerial powers to address the problem if the council continued to refuse to update its housing strategy. 

The minister wrote to the Redlands Council chief executive Andrew Chesterman in June, stating that multiple requests to update the housing strategy had been made since 2018 with no action to date. 

But the council has claimed it has sufficient supply to meet the ShapingSEQ planning benchmarks, while other south-east Queensland councils were not meeting the four-year supply requirement. 

Miles said the Redland City Council's housing strategy had not been updated since 2011 and did not account for the “significant population and housing challenges in the past decade”.

The current Redland City Council housing strategy targets 66,200 dwellings by 2031—but there is already 65,200 dwellings across the local government area, which Miles said demonstrated its redundancy as a planning document. 

“Redlands has been asked repeatedly to update its housing strategy but has declined to do so,” Miles said. 

“The people of Redlands—now and into the future—need affordable homes urgently.”

Walker Corp's 10-year bid to win approval for its Toondah Harbour housing development at Cleveland is ongoing as it faces a native title claim in the Redlands.

The $3-billion project, pictured, would add 3600 dwellings to the local government area. 

Earlier this week the Palaszczuk government announced a Housing Summit in October to address the ongoing issues around housing affordability and supply across Queensland. 

Miles said the solution required urgent partnership between all levels of government and those who have responsibility for housing.