Lismore’s mayor has responded to criticism that council isn’t doing enough to address the city’s housing affordability issues.
Vanessa Ekins says council is playing its part – putting the pressure on the state and federal governments to invest more money in social housing.
“Council has a good turnover of development applications and we have a lot of land zoned ready for development. Unfortunately, a lot of developers are sitting on that land waiting for house prices to go up,” Mayor Ekins said.
Byron and Tweed shire councils have declared a “housing emergency.”
Mayor Ekins believes Lismore doesn’t need to follow suite because the city isn’t impacted severely by Airbnb-style letting.
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