An audit of the level of affordable housing in the Wollongong pipeline should put an end to "the blame game", Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said.
At Monday night's council meeting, Cr Tania Brown called for council staff to undertake an audit of all development applications that include affordable housing.
She also called for staff to identify "any additional opportunities to incentivise and/or encourage the development sector to deliver housing outcomes".
"Anecdotally we hear of DAs that are approved and could assist in addressing the housing shortage facing our region but they're not getting out of the ground," Cr Brown said.
"Then we can only make guesses why that is - rising construction costs, access to finance, issues with builders, companies ceasing trade.
"So let's get the facts and take that data and look at our housing strategy and have an informed conversation on what the impediments are and is there a role that council can play to incentivise developers to deliver more affordable and social housing to the market."
Cr Bradbery supported the motion, saying it would "provide us an opportunity to get local government out of the blame game".
"I am just over local government continually being caught up in this," Cr Bradbery said.
"It seems as though it just comes crashing down on us every time. We're the ones, it's 'local government is responsible for this housing crisis', 'local government's the impediment', 'it's local government and developer contributions that's pushing up the price of housing'.
"I just want to make it very clear looking at the statistics from our planning department so on we are not the log jam."
Councillors unanimously passed the motion calling for an audit of development applications with an affordable housing component.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
