Wollongong council, like many others, has done nothing to alleviate the chronic lack of affordable housing locally.
Clearly they don't have the capacity to build what is needed, but a simple regulatory change could make a huge difference and also help those facing an interest rate pinch. Exciting, right?
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Currently you can park a 'tiny home' (small relocatable home with wheels) on your property but only your family members can live in it. Change that rule to allow them to be rented out and thousands of small, cheap living spaces could soak up demand.
Meanwhile, for a small increase in mortgage cost land owners could get a steady rental income stream that should easily cover the cost of the 'tiny home' and also help with their overall mortgage.
In fact, even council could benefit from this by having a reasonable fee for approving the necessary water, electric and sewer connections. Keep the regulations simple and affordable and this could really make a huge difference.
There are already local manufacturers who would benefit, but with the regulations updated it would allow new local manufacturers to grow and add employment opportunities in the region.
No doubt the council can find a reason to say no to this, but can they offer a better solution?
Ben Ellis, Farmborough Heights
Let's look at an energy middle ground
The argument over closing down all of Australia's coal-powered generators will only be settled when we have a renewable energy industry that really works and not one day before.
At the moment, try as we may, we just cannot marry up our renewable solar and wind generators to the existing National Grid as it is.
The present and less generous feed-in tariff of 5c a KWH is the undeniable proof that we have an energy industry all too willing disconnect rooftop solar from the grid if they thought that they could get away with it.
The only way to get any stability into our Australian electricity supplies is for governments to admit that the selling off of state-owned generators was a huge mistake and buy the entire industry back into taxpayers' ownership.
The minute we started using our electricity generation industry for only profit, and not for the growth and development of this nation, we all lost the guarantee to a secure future.
Nuclear power is so prohibitive that it will never be adopted in Australia.
Keep our coal-powered generators working until we can honestly say that we have made reliable renewable electricity supply a reality not a myth.
Dave Cox, Corrimal
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