Melbourne must build for an exploding population, a planner has warned. Source: News Limited
MELBOURNE faces a frightening future over its failure to build for an exploding population, a planner has warned.
Mass immigration and relatively high birthrates could push the city’s numbers from 4.3 million today to eight million by 2050, according to some projections.
But the failure to match this with infrastructure risked worsening inequality and threatening social cohesion, Roger Gibbins said.
The policy director at consultancy Urbis said major projects such as the metro rail tunnel would not be finished in time to cope with demand.
“The demand is there now,” Mr Gibbins said. “The solutions don’t really seem to be apparent, and yet we’re talking about all this future growth.
“That’s what scares me.”
Treasurer Michael O’Brien recently boasted that Victoria was adding the net equivalent of a Grand Final crowd to its population every year.
He said the state would cope with this growth with projects such as the East West Link and the Airport Rail Link.
But Mr Gibbins warned big delays in delivering such projects could lead to a backlash against growth that would threaten social cohesion.
“We’re going to create an unequal city, particularly in terms of access to employment,” Mr Gibbins said. “And for the next generation there are housing affordability issues on top of that, which are going to get worse.”
Speaking at a Property Council of Victoria summit on growth, he said it would help to cut the tax and red tape burden on the property industry.
Committee for Melbourne CEO Kate Roffey said a detailed plan would be needed to house and employ a population of eight million.
“We’ve got this very disjointed process of saying we need more affordable housing, and we keep opening up these outer urban areas, but we forget we have to connect those people to services,” she said.
“We’ve got an enormous infrastructure gap and we’re not closing it at all.”
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