The State Government has released a draft copy of the new State Planning Strategy for public comment.
When launching the draft, minister for planning John Day said the previous strategy, released in 1997, had become an integral part of the state’s planning system.
“The new State Planning Strategy is the government’s strategic planning response to the challenges that we’re likely to face in the foreseeable future,” Mr Day said.
While the primary focus of the 1997 strategy was land use planning, the new strategy is aimed at addressing the significant challenges that WA’s booming population and sustained economic growth would pose.
“It is very well recognised that Western Australia is undergoing a period of transformation via a sustained period of population growth and economic development,” Mr Day said.
“Together with this our demographic profile is changing, in particular with an aging population.”
With data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics highlighting WA’s high migration rates, Mr Day told the crowd the State Planning Strategy plans for a potential doubling of WA’s population by 2056.
“This growth brings both opportunities and challenges, especially in the areas of housing, infrastructure and amenities,” he said.
The WA division of the Urban Development Institute of Australia has also noted the challenges WA faces as its population expands.
“Three quarters of the state’s population growth is coming from overseas and interstate migration, putting pressure on the state’s housing supply,” UDIA (WA) CEO Debra Goostrey said in a statement.
“Meeting the demand for dwellings fuelled by our population growth is creating significant challenges for both industry and government.”
The UDIA (WA) points to figures from the ANZ predicting WA will be 90,000 dwellings short by the middle of this decade.
While the almost three quarters of WA’s population are expected to reside in Perth in by 2050, Mr Day said the government had to also plan for regional expansion.
“The draft strategy contains a strong regional development focus designed to integrate with planned regional investment and the Royalties for Regions program and, significantly, it outlines the emergence of the State’s North-West and Mid-West sectors as hotspots for capital investment, increasing Western Australia’s contribution to Australia’s gross domestic product.”
The draft strategy is open for public comment until late March next year.