Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece plans to abandon a housing affordability target he championed if reelected because it would lead to less development at a time when the economy is struggling. Reece, who was promoted from deputy mayor in June, revealed his change of tack regarding the city’s “inclusionary zoning” framework at the YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) lord mayoral debate on Monday evening. Inclusionary zoning is a system that requires a proportion of social or affordable housing to be delivered as a condition of approval for larger housing projects.
It is already used in the US, Europe, South Australia, the ACT and parts of NSW. Lord Mayor Nick Reece during a talk for the lord mayoral candidates at Federation Square. Credit: Simon Schluter “I have been a supporter of inclusionary zoning in the past, but I do not think now is the right time for the introduction of inclusionary zoning,” Reece told the debate.
The Greens lord mayoral candidate Roxane Ingleton’s policy is for inclusionary zoning that requires 30 per cent of housing to be affordable in new developments on land owned by the council or the state, before it is sold to developers. Last year Reece called on the state government to require all large apartment projects to adopt inclusionary zoning, a policy he said the council had been calling for since 2019. “Other cities in Australia and overseas have proven that inclusionary zoning is a powerful policy tool to drive affordable housing development at .