Whittlesea City Council

Parliament of Victoria Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee

Inquiry into local economic development initiatives in Victoria

Submission

Griff Davis Director Advocacy and Communications

John Francis Director Governance and Economic Development

11Page Executive Summary

The City of Whittlesea is the second fastest growing municipality in Australia. Along with its neighbouring 'Interface' Councils, it will accommodate over an additional 740,000 people between 2012 and 2031 according to the Victoria In Future 2012 report.

To plan for the past and this future growth, Council has led the strategic landuse planning process. The City of Whittlesea was the first Council to prepare strategic growth area plans in the late 1980s. It is the first and remains the only Council to have growth area plans covering all of its nominated growth areas prior to the latest Urban Growth Area boundary change. Council has nominated employment areas and in the early 2000s when developing the Cooper Street Employment Area strategic plan, adopted an aspiration of one job for every new household established in the municipality. This benchmark has recently been adopted by the Growth Areas Authority in its development of Precinct Structure Plans.

This Council has developed strategies for its economic development, land use, community services, open spaces, recreation and a myriad of other services it provides to the community. These strategies highlight one fundamental concept that is entirely missing on the State and Commonwealth Governments. That is; holistic planning and implementation.

If there is one message that comes out of this Inquiry, it is that Government Departments must start to consider the impacts of their individual strategies upon the entire community and the strategies of other departments.

A final comment before providing more detailed information on issues and suggested actions is that upon review of the 2008 Inquiry by the Outer Suburban/Interface Services and Development Committee into Local Economic Development in Outer Suburban Melbourne most of the 171 recommendations have not been acted on and yet those recommendations are essentially as valid today as they were in 2008. It would be advantageous to revisit those recommendations and to strongly recommend an implementation program.

At the more actionable level, this submission highlights the following key issues and actions:

Main barrier(s) to local economic development outcomes being realised o Lack of support for small businesses. Grants and financial assistance provided by State and Federal Government is targeted at larger businesses, or require a dollar for dollar contribution, which is difficult for small business. o Lack of education and employment pathway options for young people in Whittlesea. Lack of preventative supports and programs that support young people to stay in school or transition to employment.

Support from Government necessary o Increase relocation of Government offices to the municipality such as the relocation of part of the Department of Business and Innovation to University Hill, Bundoora. These initiatives also encourage the private sector to invest in nearby locations as well. o Encourage a better understanding between our Universities and local business needs by providing financial assistance to the Council or,. at a regional level, North link to design and deliver localised projects which meet the real needs of our small to medium industries, particularly manufacturing, and at the same time providing meaningful, practical implementation of skills of students at our local universities and TAFE colleges. The very successful Greenhouse Challenge Project with RMIT and managed by Northlink is a great example.

21Page o Council needs both financial and research assistance from the State Government in understanding what the impediments are to take-up and how Council can best support the take-up of Information Communications Technology (ICT) using the broadband available in the municipality. Council is committed to assisting local businesses and the local community exploits the benefits of broadband to strengthen economic output and social capital. o Government programs targeted at the automotive industry and manufacturing restructure should be made available for small businesses. o Supporting the employment of migrants particularly including refugees. The key barriers are poor English language skills and cultural barriers are evident. o Create vertical integration of school, university or TAFE with associated industry and focus on specific and locally relevant sectors in which to grow knowledge and skills. o Further strengthen the local knowledge economy by more closely integrating tertiary institutes into the region and encourage the development of associated business networks. o Encourage life-long learning practices; the biggest improvement to resident wellbeing and household income growth will come from improved qualifications and skills. o Assist these workers on the transition path to new skills and employment through highly structured intervention strategies and improve the capacity of automotive manufacturing employees to market their own skill sets. o Promote the importance of the region's manufacturing skills and manufacturing employment to encourage growth industry firms to establish new operations, particularly in Whittlesea and Hume.

A number of points discussed in this report have been obtained from research commissioned by Council as well as the Regional Economic Development organisations of NORTH Link and Regional Development Victoria - Northern Melbourne.

3jPage INTRODUCTION

The City of Whittlesea welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Inquiry into Local Economic Development Initiatives in Victoria.

Whittlesea's 2025 Strategic Community Plan titled "Shaping Our Future" places a high importance on Council's role in economic development. The Plan's preparation involved the broad input from the community to ensure it reflected the aspirations of the whole community.

There are six Future Directions defined within .the Shaping Our Future: Whittlesea 2025- Strategic Community Plan to guide Council and the community in reaching our 2025 destination:

1. Inclusive and Engaged Community 2. Accessibility 3. Growing Our Economy 4. Places and Spaces to Connect People 5. Health and Wellbeing 6. Living Sustainably

Growing Our Economy is a fundamental building block to ensure that our community achieves its aspirations of having a lifestyle that it sustainable, healthy and safe. At the local level our community is keenly aware of this. The delivery of economic development outcomes is dependent upon an array of interrelated factors.

Future Direction 3: Growing Our Economy states:

"A diverse economy offers varied career opportunities so people can live and work in Whittlesea. · Business attraction requires infrastructure and transport planning, affordable housing, skill development and a supportive regulatory environment. We need to work on supporting and developing opportunities for local business like growing the food we need locally. Education facilities offer everyone career and skill development options."

Development of a holistic planning and delivery model that utilises the timely delivery of accessible and affordable transport infrastructure to stimulate business investment is central to the future economic, social and environmental wellbeing of our community. The Victorian State Government currently divides responsibility for delivery of planning and infrastructure projects across multiple departments, whose failure to collaborate effectively is leading to poor integration of infrastructure delivery with economic development timelines that are critical to the development of vibrant, self-sustaining communities. The policy of releasing an increasing amount of land on Melbourne's fringe is not historically linked to commensurate investments in infrastructure from Treasury. Initiatives to close the funding gap (such as the Growth Area Infrastructure Contribution) have only marginally remedied the problem, funding only an estimated additional 15% of State infrastructure for growth areas since 2005.

The City of Whittlesea's draft response to the exhibition of the GAA's Melbourne North Growth Corridor Plan highlighted how recent State Government planning initiatives can be improved to ensure that infrastructure delivery and economic development are better coordinated. The complete absence of an implementation framework to underpin delivery of the Northern Growth Corridor Plan not only creates barriers to effective collaboration

4jPage between State Government departments, but also reduces private sector confidence in Greenfield investment. That confidence is critical to the timely creation of local job opportunities and diverse housing close to Activity Centres, both of which are fundamental components of well-planned urban environments. Government cannot hope to share an increasing amount of risk via partnerships with the private sector if it does not do all in its power to' facilitate the conditions under which private investment is appealing. The best strategy for doing that is to make the timeline for infrastructure delivery transparent.

The criticality of transport infrastructure in economic development

The recent extension of the Epping rail line to South Morang is the first of many rail extensions required to facilitate economic and community development in outer urban areas. South Morang is a living testament to the ramifications of poorly coordinated planning and infrastructure delivery. It has become somewhat defined by the overwhelming presence of Plenty Valley Westfield, because the delay to the rail extension meant that only a car dependeQt, 'big-box' development was feasible to a major developer such as Westfield. This lack of a commitment to public transport drastically affected the ability of the market to provide for a street-based town centre that is a prosperous place to do business across a variety of sectors, or one that has a true civic value. What residents inevitably got instead is a corporately owned shopping centre that predominantly provides retail services and creates what is essentially a dormitory suburb where people need to travel large distances by car to get access to the spectrum of goods and services that is necessary, including a diversity of employment opportunities. The Mernda Town Centre is perhaps another XXXXX planning failure if the Government does not support its development with a rail extension.

The failure of the 2011 Northern Growth Corridor Plan to demonstrate State Government commitment to the extension of rail to Mernda Town Centre is an issue of major significance to Council. The State Government approved the Plenty Valley Growth .Corridor Strategy in the late 1980s. Land was first allowed to be developed in Doreen at Laurimar in around 1994 (when the Mernda Local Structure Plan Part 1 was approved), yet despite the opportunity presented ·during the recent Corridor planning process, there remains no commitment to high capacity public transport to the Mernda-Doreen Growth Corridor, an area covering around 22.5 square kilometres that will soon have a local population of over 50,000 people. Commitment to a similar arrangement in the Wollert/Donnybrook Corridor is also absent in the new Northern Growth Corridor Plan. Creation of another South Morang style dormitory suburb in Mernda and in Donnybrook will repeat mistakes of the past that are abundantly clear.

Major future diversification of employment opportunities in our growing city will be unlikely if this trend continues. For example, the likelihood of businesses in the professional sector relocating from central or: inner metropolitan Melbourne will be drastically reduced if the outer suburbs remain unattractive to the lifestyle requirements of existing employees accustomed to the ease of access to infrastructure and services. The existing lack of public transport to and throughout our municipality is already considered one of many causal factors in the existing, relative homogeneity of employment opportunities. Big-box developments that invariably dominate when public transport is insufficient do not engender the kind of 'high street', cosmopolitan atmosphere that city-dwellers find attractive and which our existing community must already travel long distances to experience. Place making that considers the complexity of these interrelated factors is therefore the fundamental basis of competent planning and delivery that underpins economic development.

At present there are a number of planned extensions, duplications or widenings of main roads to improve North-South and East-West connections and relieve traffic congestion. These include the extension of Edgars Road, the widening of High Street/Epping Road, extension and widening of Findon Road, improvements to Bridge Inn Road, and duplication

SIPage of Plenty Road. These projects are held up for various reasons: insufficient developer contributions; required funding being well beyond the means of Council, VicRoads prioritisation of funding allocation and State Government's dilution of the objectives of the Outer Suburban Arterial Road Program. Improvements must be made to how the responsibility for a road is transferred from Council to VicRoads and to the funding timelines of the Department of Transport and VicRoads to remove the barriers for these key projects. This should be a component of the kind of staged and sequenced infrastructure delivery model we suggest is integral to the successful expansion of urban and economic growth in outer suburban Melbourne.

Our submission will cover the following topics: o The range of existing economic development programs being carried out by the City of Whittlesea. o Our view on the appropriate role of local government in generating economic development and review the allocation of responsibility in this area with the State Government. ·

.o Our view on the role of local government economic development tasks depending on whether the Council is rural, regional, metropolitan or outer metropolitan. o Highlight the barriers to local economic development in operating in local municipalities and possible solutions to address these barriers. o Provide examples and other suggested methods in which municipal councils and the State Government can jointly support local economic development, enhance and promote employment and attract new investment, especially in localities with emerging economic potential. o Provide examples of best practice local economic development initiatives relevant to the terms of reference. o Raise the issue of a lack of action associated with the 2008 Parliamentary Inquiry into Local Economic Development in Outer Suburban Melbourne.

6IPage Snapshot of the City of Whittlesea

The City of Whittlesea is located 20 kilometres north of Melbourne's CBD. Covering 490 square kilometres, it is a large municipality containing both rural and rapidly developing urban areas. It includes the major rural centre of Whittlesea, the rural localities of Beveridge, Donnybrook, Eden Park, Humevale, Kinglake West, Wollert, Woodstock and Yan Yean and the established or developing suburbs of Bundoora, Doreen, Epping, Lalor, Mernda, Mill Park, South Morang and Thomastown. ·

Residents come from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds with a very high percentage of residents born in other countries, particularly Macedonia, Italy, and Greece. Demographically, over half of the residents are from non-English speaking backgrounds.

At the local level, the influences of a diverse cultural heritage are more evident in the urban areas of Thomastown, Lalor and Epping. These suburbs contain a greater proportion of non-English speaking backgrounds than other parts of the municipality. These residents bring with them many aspects of their own cultures, which contribute greatly to the character and identity of the City of Whittlesea.

The municipality's population has grown at a rapid rate during the past 30 years, more than quadrupling from 27,000 in 1969 to approximately 162,067 (id consulting 2011) in 2011. Population growth in each of the last two years has exceeded 5%, or more than 630 people per month. In 2010-2011, the City of Whittlesea had the fastest growth area in Australia and the second fastest growth in population of any Australian municipality. The population is expected to approach 295,000 by 2031. ·

71Page The City of Whittlesea is a designated growth area of metropolitan significance. Growth will mainly occur within three designated growth areas at South Morang, Mernda/Doreen and Epping North. With the progressive residential development over many decades, the large size and broad range of land uses across the municipality, areas have developed different roles within the housing market. Areas such as Epping North, Mernda/Doreen, South Morang and Whittlesea have had significant residential development in more recent years and are attractive to couples and families seeking new housing opportunities. The rural north and Blossom Park area is attractive to mature families looking to upgrade to their second or third home. Bundoora, Epping and Thomastown tend to attract more young adults (18-24 years) due to the range of services in the area, proximity to public transport, as well as rental accommodation. This variety of function and role of the small areas in the City of Whittlesea means that population outcomes differ significantly across the municipality. Employment has been a critical factor in assisting and encouraging population growth. University Hill, a large scale mixed use development containing white collar and high value business process development is a model of brownfield business development. The Cooper Street Employment Area adjacent to Epping Central; a Principal Activity Centre, will attract over 30,000 jobs. These initiatives were created through the collaboration with investors and development companies. State Government involvement was largely absent. Other key growth statistics 1 include:

o 82.29% increase in total population between 2011 and 2031 (over 133,000 people) o Largest increase in numbers (-40,000 people) will occur in the next 5 years although there are still significant increases within each 5 year period of between 27,000- 36,000 people o All age groups will increase significantly by between 70-90% over the next 20 years and the largest increase is the 70-84 yr old age group with an increase of over 130% o Whittlesea is the second fastest growing LGA in Australia at 6.1 %. o In raw numbers (8,900 people) it is the second largest growing LGA in Australia o The north of the municipality is the fastest growth area in Australia having sustained 94.1% of the population growth at 8,400 people o The north of the municipality has the fastest annual growth rate of any SLA in Australia increasing by 21.8% (Wyndham North was next at 16.2%)

The economic development landscape: Business and Industry o At June 2012, there were approximately 10,000 businesses operating within the City of Whittlesea o The great majority of businesses within the municipality are small businesses. Almost 60% are sole-person (non-employing businesses). Around 100 businesses have 50 or more employees. More must be done to foster the capacity of small businesses if they are to play a role in developing local expertise. Reinstatement of financial support for business incubators is one strategy that would give growth areas the chance to 2 nurture and develop local employment opportunities .

1 ABS Census (2006); City ofWhittlesea population forecast (id Consulting, 2011) 2 NORTH Link, Melbourne's North: The new knowledge economy, 2009

8jPage o The industry sector with the greatest number of large businesses is manufacturing. Almost one-quarter of businesses in the municipality belong to the construction industry, and one-third belongs to the property and business services or transport and storage industries. o More than 70% of residents employed in the manufacturing sector are classified as. labourers and related workers, tradespersons, plant and machine operators or drivers. o Issues faced by managers in the manufacturing industry include changing patterns in customer demand, changing technologies and materials, macroeconomic financial challenges, the increasing need for product innovation and shorter product life cycles, the need to find new markets and increasing competition from countries such as China. These challenges define the need for high quality strategic managers. o As a result of these challenges, the manufacturing sector is likely to face declines in labour demand. The least skilled workers, particularly factory and process workers in the automotive and broader manufacturing industries are the most vulnerable to long term unemployment. State government programs that target the retraining or redirection of vulnerable, low-skilled workers will mitigate the creation of a new group of unemployed or underemployed workers. The commitment to and proper funding of the TAFE sector to provide high quality training opportunities is one way of addressing that risk. Programs that facilitate the transition of secondary school students to TAFE via VCAL is another. o Council facilitates a number of networking and workshop opportunities for local business throughout the year. Once implemented, Council's Lifelong Learning Strategy should expand these initiatives to increased linkages between industry and educational institutions. o There is an opportunity for investment in innovative, advanced manufacturing in the North, or for government to provide increased research support to existing businesses 3 that will help create a defense against 'off-shoring and other supply chain risks' .

An 'aspiration' of Council is to provide one job for every new residential dwelling. In order to meet this challenging benchmark, it is important that Council encourages a diverse range of businesses and industry sectors into the municipality to meet the changing skill sets of both our established and new communities. It also means our economic development initiatives must aim to grow our existing businesses in such a way that they employ more local residents.

3 NORTH Link, Melbourne's North: The new knowledge economy, 2009

9IPage The following charts4 describe current resident occupations:

Occupation Annual Household Survel' 2006 ABS 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 Census

.Manager 9.6% 8.1% 11.4% 12.1% 10.3% 8.9%

Professional 16.0% 13.9% 10.9% 17.1% 11.4% 11.9%

Technician/trade 14.3% 15.4% 12.4% 13.3% 14.7% 17.0%

Community/personal service 10.7% 9.0% 7.0% 3.. 6% 4.1% 8.4%

Clerical/ad min 13.8% 13.9% 13.7% 12.4% 13.7% 16.5%

Sales 11.1% 13.7% 11.0% 13.7% 15.9% 11.1%

Machinery operators/drivers 9.0% 6.9% 7.4% 6.5% 5.2% 10.6%

Labourers 15.0% 17.5% 18.4% 16.1% 14.7% 13.0%

Other/unspecified 0.4% 1.6% 7.7% 5.0% 10.0% 2.4%

Annual Household Survey 2006 ABS Industry 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 Census

Manufacturing 15.3% 15.5% 16.9% 17.3% 18.5% 18.9%

Retail, wholesale trade 12.5% 17.5% 14.6% 15.6% 14.9% 18.2%

Health care, social assistance 11.0% 16.3% 13.7% 11.7%. 10.1% 9.8%

Construction 8.5% 14.6% 11.7% 11.0% 10.1% 9.4%

Transport, postal, warehousing 11.1% 8.4% 8.7% 9.0% 7.1% 6.5%

Education, training 6.8% 5.6% 5.7% 6.7% 5.4% 5.4%

Accommodation, food services 5.6% 6.9% 6.4% 6.6% 3.3% 5.4%

Other/undefined 29.1% 15.1% 22.2% 22.0% 30.8% 26.5%.

4 Note: sampling error for these categories is around ±3%, and is evident in some discrepancy between 2006 Census and Annual Household Survey data. Declines in retail/wholesale trade, healthcare/social assistance and construction do not follow historical trends and may be due to sampling bias or classification changes. Caution should be used.

5 The City ofWhittlesea Annual Household Survey is a Census-style survey that asks a statistically significant sample of households questions about their household and their use/perception of Council services.

10 I Page Residential{') location of workers in City ofWhittlesea, 2006 Residential location of workers Number - live and work wi!~cln the City live outside, but work wllhin the City Live and work within the City of 14,127 43.9 Whittlesea Live outside, but work within the 18,060 56.1 City of Whittlesea

Total workers in the City of 32,187 100.0 Whittlesea

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Journey to work, unpublished data, 2006.

(a) 'Residential' refers to place of enumeration on Census night.

A~s.tt:;.Eato· E>..:t~liJ d ~-t:l!Ist~~s. A~stta:~:lt, E~tEav ¢! JC,Lfr.~y tO Wt)t'«.. '-'-tp~tJ:St;~; C31a. 2_<):-<£

Top 10 Local Government Areas of residence for workers in City of Whittlesea, 2006 Rank Local Government Area Number Percent(%) 1 Whittlesea (C) 14,127 43.9 2 Banyule (C) 3,084 9.6 3 Darebin (C) 2,585 8.0 4 Hume (C) 2,399 7.5 5 Nillumbik (S) 2,184 6.8

6 Moreland (C) 1 '116 3.5 7 Mitchell (S) 823 2.6 8 Brimbank (C) 730 2.3 9 Manningham (C) 699 2.2 10 Moonee Valley (C) 497 1.5 Other areas 3,943 12.3 Total workers in the City of 32 187 100.0 Whittlesea '

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Journey to work, unpublished data, 2006.

lliPage Working population 2006 number 2006 percent(%) Occupation, income and qualifications for City of Whittlesea's workers*, 2006 Occupations Managers 3,571 11.1 Professionals 5,586 17.4 Technicians and Trades Workers 5,039 15.7 Community and Personal Service Workers 2,543 7.9 Clerical and Administrative Workers 4,321 13.4 Sales Workers 3;558 11.1 Machinery Operators And Drivers 3,331 10.3 Labourers 3,891 12.1 Not Stated/Inadequately Described 346 1.1 Total 32,186 100.0 Weekly individual inc.ome Negative income 55 0.2 $1~$149 1,843 5.7 $150-$249 1,744 5.4 $250-$399 3,311 10.3 $400-$599 6,874 21.4 $600-$799 5,844 18.2 $800-$999 4,430 13.8 $1,000-$1 ,299 3,904 12.1 $1,300-$1,599 1,699 5.3 $1,600-$1,999 806 2.5 $2,000 or more 854 2.7 Not stated 625 1.9 Total 32,186 100.0 Highest qualification achieved Postgraduate Degree Level 846 2.6 Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate 796 2.5 Level Bachelor Degree Level 4,462 13.9 Advanced Diploma and Diploma Level 2,553 7.9 Certificate Level 5,928 18.4 No post-school qualification 15,593 48.4 Inadequately Described/Not Stated 2,011 6.2 Total 32,189 100.0

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Working Population Community profile, 2006 (Catalogue number: 2006.0). *Workers' refers to the people who work in the the City of Whittlesea but may live elsewhere.

12 I Page c% ~ m qo;~'i"''" B "';a,"'"N "" "' ' '~ifl;oJi Wl:iittlesea- Bo~ulation ~trewtll "~ ~ ~ !(:"" if! " At June 2001 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Whittlesea ERP 118,118 129,525 - 133,897 139,595 146,223 154,864 163,539 Growth 11,407 4,372 5,698 6,628 8,641 8,675 Annual Growth 1.9% 3.4% 4.3% 4.7% 5.9% 5.6% People per 190 364 475 552 720 723 month .People per 44 84 110 127 166 167 week Source: ABS 2006 Census of Population and Housing Community Profiles; Regional Population Growth, ABS 3218.0 ERP is Estimated Resident Population

City of Whittlesea - Po~ulation Forecast 300,000 .....------,