This article originally appeared online at farmweekly.com.au titled “Wheatbelt shires work together to secure housing funding boost” by Belinda Morrissy.

The Federal government’s latest round of funding in its ambitious Housing Support Program has been announced, with the Wheatbelt among the nation’s regions receiving a share of the $500 million allocated to the first stream.

It has been widely reported in Farm Weekly throughout this year that a lack of housing has been a critical issue throughout the Wheatbelt.

The Albanese government will contribute to 80 projects across Australia including 73 local government projects, supporting the acceleration of housing supply to ensure residential growth in local communities is accessible, affordable and sustainable.

Almost $900,000 was awarded to the Shire of Victoria Plains’ ‘Planning and servicing works to unlock vacant land and support the future delivery of affordable housing in the Wheatbelt’ project that is a joint venture with surrounding shires.

This project aims to deliver planning and servicing works to increase the number of shovel-ready, vacant lots in the Shire of Victoria Plains, along with the five other Wheatbelt shires of Moora, Dandaragan, Toodyay, Goomalling and West Arthur.

Shire of Victoria Plains president Pauline Bantock said that it’s pleasing to see the benefits of regional co-operation starting to take shape regarding the provision of housing in the regions.

“The six shires of Victoria Plains, Moora, Dandaragan, Toodyay, Goomalling and West Arthur will share in $877,065 to support the future delivery of affordable housing in the region,” Ms Bantock said.

“This vital funding will help bridge a long-standing gap in regional planning capacity, enabling progress on priority housing projects.”

Ms Bantock said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the successful funding recipients at the Australian Council of Local Government in Canberra last Friday.

“The Shire of Moora and ourselves were at the Australian Council of Local Government as part of Local Government Week and it was very pleasing to see that we were on the list of recipients,” she said.

“To be one of 73 successful applicants across the whole of Australia reinforced the government’s message that you have got to be in it to win it.”

Victoria Plains chief executive officer Sean Fletcher said being successful in receiving this round of funding allowed the shire to undertake a range of planning activities regarding the Edmonds Street housing development in Calingiri.

He said by receiving $67,000 under the joint grant submission the shire can now undertake planning and assessment activities for the proposed housing development including septic tank effluent disposal system capacity assessment, an omnibus amendment to the local planning scheme and bushfire risk assessment.

Mr Fletcher said the joint application initially consisted of three of the Avon Regional Organisation of Council (AROC) partners including the shires of Goomalling, Toodyay and Victoria Plains and Key Worker Housing partner the Shire of Dandaragan along with the Wheatbelt Development Commission (WDC).

The shires of Moora and West Arthur then joined the application for funding.

“We cannot thank the Wheatbelt Development Commission enough regarding the level of support it has provided in assisting us to develop the business case for this funding program,” Mr Fletcher said.

“Each of our local government partners along with us at Victoria Plains are very excited regarding the funding outcome.

“It gives us strong hope for funding from other sources to build houses.”

Ms Bantock acknowledged the level of work that went into undertaking funding applications.

“These types of funding announcements make the hard work to secure a better future for our communities worthwhile,” she said.

“All local governments work tirelessly to secure key funding to provide services and facilities that will benefit our communities both for today and tomorrow.

“In particular, those of us in the regions, are entitled to seek funding to address liveability.”

In a separate funding application, the Shire of Dandaragan also received close to $100,000 to engage a planning officer, with the aim to increase capacity to assess development applications and undertake strategic planning initiatives directly related to the larger amount received alongside the other shires.

Shire of Dandaragan president Tony O’Gorman said he was pleased the council went ahead with both applications and said they are looking to the next steps.

“What stream one funding does is it allows us to do all the planning for the infrastructure, and once we get all that planning done, then we can apply for a stream two grant which is for the actual capital works of building the projects,” Mr O’Gorman said.

“Out of the joint application funds, we picked up about $255,000.

“Of our share we are looking at is a block out in Dandaragan where we are looking at putting 12 accommodation units, and in Jurien Bay we have a block of land we are looking at putting another 15 accommodation units on.”

Mr O’Gorman said once the new planning officer was recruited, they would will co-ordinate these projects.

“The planning officer will do the town planning, infrastructure planning and costings so that we can apply for the second stream,” he said.

“Councils normally haven’t been involved in housing planning but we were at a point where the pressure is on so much so we have to be involved.

“We have been working on this for the last 12 months, doing a housing plan and investigating what we as a council can do to boost our housing stock within the towns of Jurien Bay and Dandaragan.

“We are also looking at our other towns but these two seem to be the first cabs of the rank at this point and we will use the federal money to good effect.”

The joint process between the six shires and the Wheatbelt Development Commission was pivotal to the application’s success, according to Mr O’Gorman.

“As I said previously, providing housing is not traditionally carried out by local governments, it’s a whole new area to us,” he said.

“Being able to partner with someone like the WDC and the other shires was absolutely fabulous.”

Wheatbelt Development Commission chief executive officer Rob Cossart said the commission recognised the need for key worker and residential housing across the region.

“We are committed to working with the region’s shires to identify opportunities for future development and investment into these important measures,” Mr Cossart said.

“The Commonwealth government’s funding announcement will enable the shires of Victoria Plains, Moora, Dandaragan, Toodyay, Goomalling and West Arthur to undertake critical planning works to unlock vacant land and support the delivery of affordable housing.

“The partnership demonstrates the positive outcomes of collaboration across the Wheatbelt shires.”

The other shires within WA to receive funding are City of Karratha, City of Vincent, Shire of Broome, Shire of Capel, Shire of Plantagenet and Shire of Christmas Island.

The second stream of the Housing Support Program worth a further $450 million aims to provide funding for infrastructure that supports housing, such as roads and utility connections, and community amenities like parks, footpaths and public spaces.

Applications are open until Friday, August 16, 2024.