MAV & CHIA Vic on the Planning Reform Bill 2025

The peak bodies for community housing and local government in Victoria are calling on Parliament to ensure the Victorian Government's Planning Amendment Bill 2025 delivers affordable housing for the next generation.

The Bill will go before the Victorian Upper House in coming days and represents the biggest overhaul of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 in 40 years. While the Bill's planning objectives include 'the facilitation of social housing', it provides no new mechanisms to actually deliver this. The Community Housing Industry Association Victoria (CHIA Vic) and the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) are deeply concerned the Bill represents a wasted opportunity.

Victoria's housing affordability crisis cannot be fixed by focusing on market-rate housing supply alone. We need an affordable housing contribution requirement, something the Government promised to explore in its Plan for Victoria released earlier this year.

In 2022, more than 146,000 Victorians did not have suitable housing - either experiencing homelessness, living in overcrowded housing, or spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent in the private rental market.

Victoria still has the lowest proportion of social housing in Australia at 3.1 per cent - well below the national average.

Without any real mechanisms to deliver social housing through our planning system, the Victorian Government is only paying lip-service to the problem.

CHIA Vic and the MAV call on Parliament to ensure the Planning Amendment Bill 2025 introduces a new affordable housing head of power. Funds collected under this mechanism would contribute to the construction of new social housing in the same community, helping all Victorians to find safe, secure and affordable homes.