To ensure the region can respond to a surge in visitor numbers when the Airport opens, GWS will need to leverage its unique characteristics, build on its existing attraction base and make sure it has the right assets to meet future local and international tourism demand.

Both the State and Federal Governments have committed billions of dollars in infrastructure investment to the region – including the Airport, new metro lines and roads packages – but are yet to fully commit major funding to support the growth of the visitor and tourism economy in GWS.

To maximise the benefits that a new Airport will deliver, the region’s leading industry stakeholders are working collectively, so that visitors that land in GWS are attracted to stay and spend their dollars here.

The series was aimed at keeping the region’s stakeholders well informed of the crucial information that was to affect our region, as well as its central role in determining the election outcome. The Election Analysis Series was a follow on from the Dialogue’s 2023 NSW Election Priorities, our Partner-led advocacy campaign aimed at both the Government and Opposition, launched late last year at our annual Boomtown! Summit. 

The enclosed list of priority policies and projects was informed by our Partners and formed the basis of our campaign. 

This housing shortfall, plus the broader issues fuelling the decline in housing affordability, are particularly acute in Greater Western Sydney (GWS), a growth region that is a perennial focus at election time.

The Dialogue believes that overcoming what is a universally acknowledged crisis in the under-supply of social and affordable housing is not beyond a nation as wealthy and as decent as ours. The election has since passed, however the issues highlighted in the report exist beyond this context and continue to be increasingly pressing in the current climate of economic downturn and inflation pressures.

This paper draws on policy analysis commissioned by the Dialogue and conducted by Deloitte, which we have combined with regional and housing sector stakeholder research, and close consultation with the major tier one CHPs and key community stakeholders in our region.

The social and affordable housing supply in the region met only 40.6% of total demand with around 15% of all households in the Greater Western Sydney region in need of social and affordable housing. By current projections, the GWS region will experience a shortfall of 28,200 social and affordable housing by 2036, driven in part by a 41% increase in homelessness over the last five years as well as growing affordability issues more generally in the housing sector.

Over the coming two decades GWS faces a distinctive sustainability and affordability challenge, that if not acknowledged and addressed will only worsen the socioeconomic challenges and further dampen growth.

This report was commissioned by the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue in partnership with the largest Community Housing Providers operating in the Western Sydney region, including BlueCHP, Evolve Housing, Hume Housing, Link Wentworth and SGCH.

While we are seeing some positive and encouraging developments in the way social procurement is integrated in public spending decisions and the approach by government, industry and the wider community, more can be done to secure a higher dividend.

Within this central framework, there is an enormous opportunity, with the right policy settings, to unlock the value-generating potential of the social enterprise sector across NSW, and especially in GWS, where pockets of profound disadvantage and concerning rates of disengagement, drastically exposed during the pandemic lockdown of 2021, need to be addressed.