This comes as they also opposed the NSW Government’s plan for housing reform, further demonstrating the short-term political thinking that has forced NSW into the housing crisis our state is experiencing today.
While other councils are working with the NSW Government to help deliver more well-located, well-designed and well-built homes Jordan Lane who also sits on Ryde Council and his fellow councillors have voted against housing, effectively locking another generation out of access to a home.
On Tuesday night, the Ryde Council CEO put forward an option developed by the council’s own planners that recognised the need for more housing. The proposal, titled “Striking the right balance” would have allowed 38,000 more homes across the local government area.
This is what the people of NSW want their councils to do, work with the government to supply more homes.
Jordan Lane has once again proven that the only thing the Liberal and National opposition are interested in is playing politics with a housing crisis.
The Member for Ryde has a track record of denying young people looking for a home and older people looking to downsize and remain in their local communities the opportunity to do so by voting against housing proposals.
In November last year, the NSW Government proposed more flexibility around Macquarie Park to provide both homes and jobs. The Member for Ryde also opposed this.
This is in the midst of a housing crisis that the Productivity Commission has warned will turn Sydney into a city with no grandchildren with itlosing twice as many people aged from 30 to 40 as it gained between 2016 and 2021.
Essential workers are locked out of our cities, or having to travel for hours to provide essential services like health, policing and education in their cars.
Delivering the homes for our current and future generations need is a shared responsibility.
All three levels of government signed up to the National Housing accord which means Ryde Councillors and the NSW opposition need to wake up and recognise the importance of their role in creating more housing for current and future generations.
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said:
“It is incumbent on all political leaders in NSW to work together to address the housing crisis facing our state.
“It’s short-term thinking from some Ryde Councillors that is crippling our planning system, stopping supply and locking another generation out of housing.
“It’s disappointing that Jordan Lane and his fellow Liberal councillors voted against a proposal their own Chief Executive endorsed and recommended to create more housing for the Ryde community.
“While other councils are constructively working with the NSW Government on outcomes that will benefit their communities now and into the future Ryde Liberal councillors have replaced long-term thinking with short term political thinking – the public deserves better than this.
“If we don’t make these changes now, it will mean another generation of young people in Ryde, in Sydney and the rest of NSW gets locked out of the housing market.”
