Housing should be a higher priority
Councillor candidate, Joel Richters wants to be clear that housing and development in our region will be his highest priority. A home is not a privilege but a necessity.
Have you been concerned by the apparent lack of new housing options? What about the rising cost of rentals?
A serious lack of housing availability is one factor driving up costs for our working families. It’s also damaging industry and growth. I hear regularly that workers are turning down job opportunities due to not being able to find a home. I fear that if this keeps going our regions reputation will be seriously damaged and growth opportunities will be missed.
People tell me that developers will not work with our council due to the significant road blocks being put in place due to unreasonable planning conditions. It is chiefly our councillors job to ensure that planning conditions safeguard our community and promote growth.
If I am elected to council I will work with my fellow councillors to ensure the conditions imposed on developers are right for our region and will promote growth.
We also need to consider what our future housing should look like. Residents often tell me that using good agricultural land close to town is rightly not acceptable. The other obvious option is to increase the density of our current urban spaces. Now is the time to consider multi-storey residential buildings and additional retirement villages with independent living.
Increasing density and encouraging appropriate retirement housing will have a flow on effect of making more housing available for families and new residents. This would also allow housing to be available for critical public servants such as nurses and police officers for example; not to mention social housing.
We must also address the effect of the wind farms on housing. We are expecting this impact to last for the whole length of the next term of council. Waiting until 2028 to have the housing market correct itself is not an option while people are forced to live in tents.
My position on these issues and many others are on my website for all to see, because we should expect that our councillors are open about where they stand on the issues affecting you. You should Expect More! Read more about my position on the important issues: https://joelrichters.com/about-me/all-issues/
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