The Victorian Government announced an incentive to address the issue of housing affordability earlier this week and Richard Fitzpatrick said a similar move in regional NSW would allow Wagga to compete with similar southern cities.

“The NSW Government would not only reduce some of the housing shortage in Sydney, but also see Wagga compete on an equal footing with Victoria,” he said.

The comments came as senior government sources revealed the Federal Government was considering the creation of a new affordable housing finance corporation. Treasurer Scott Morrison has signalled the May budget will have a range of policy measures designed to tackle housing affordability for renters and first home buyers.

The NSW Government has also taken a step towards delivering thousands of additional social homes across the state, but none of them are in the Murrumbidgee.

However, the NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS) welcomed the announcement of the Social and Affordable Housing Fund, with president Tony Davies saying it was an important tool encouraging new strategies to boost social and affordable housing across the state.

“We will see 2200 social and affordable houses delivered as a part of this first phase of the Social and Affordable Housing Fund and this should just be the beginning,” he said.

“With 60,000 households currently on the social housing waiting list in NSW and households increasingly experiencing rental stress we need to be encouraging all the new thinking we can to boost social and affordable housing in NSW.”