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Key Workers Fleeing Sydney (Read 503 times)
whiteknight
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Key Workers Fleeing Sydney
Feb 6th, 2018 at 2:00pm
 
Key workers fleeing Sydney's inner and middle-ring

Sydney Morning Herald
February 5 2018

Sydney's inner and middle-ring neighbourhoods are being sapped of locals who work in essential services including nurses, teachers and police as high house prices alter the make-up of the city's neighbourhoods.   Sad

New research has revealed a dramatic slump in the number of key workers living in long-established Sydney regions during the past decade while areas on the urban fringe have experienced significant net gains.

The Parramatta region had the biggest net loss of essential workers between 2006 and 2016 with a decline of 21.4 per cent. Next was the eastern suburbs (-15.2 per cent) followed by Sydney's inner south west (-14.6 per cent), Ryde (-14.2 per cent) and inner west (-11.3 per cent).

During the same period the Southern Highlands, on the extremity of Greater Sydney, experienced a 17 per cent net increase in the number of essential workers living in the region. There were also big net gains in the Hunter Valley (+13.6 per cent) and the Illawarra (+10.5 per cent).

"In Sydney there is a growing spatial mismatch between where key workers live and work," said the study conducted by the University of Sydney's Urban Housing Lab for the Teachers Mutual Bank, Firefighters Mutual Bank and Police Bank.

"Although key worker jobs are situated throughout the metropolitan region, and particularly in inner Sydney, the majority of the metropolitan region's key workers reside in outer ring suburbs."

The report blamed high house prices and rents for "pushing out" Sydney's essential workers. It warned housing affordability for key worker groups is "likely to decline further without effective market innovation or policy change".   Sad

It found key workers typically needed 13 years to save a 20 per cent deposit for a median-priced home in inner Sydney in 2016, compared to 8.4 years in 2006.

The report concluded the closest local government area with an affordable median rental price for an entry level enrolled nurse is Cessnock in the Hunter Valley.

"That's about 150 kilometres from any hospital in Sydney city, making it a 300km round trip per day," Teachers Mutual Bank chief executive Steve James said.

But some relatively modest policy changes could assist many young essential service workers locate closer to work.

"There are some locations across the Sydney metropolitan region where house prices or rents are only just out of reach for key workers, so modest interventions to improve access to home ownership could increase the extent of locations that are potentially affordable," the report said.

Sydney University's Nicole Gurran, who led the study, said sensible "inclusionary" planning policies that required developers to marginally reduce the cost of housing for key workers would make a significant difference.

The study also found a far higher share of key workers faced a long commute by private car than the general population – just 5 per cent of key workers used public transport to get to work, compared with 12.7 per cent for the general population.

"The data suggests that many key workers are being forced to live in areas where housing is lower priced and they are lower priced because they are inaccessible to public transport," Professor Gurran said.

"I don't think it is ideal for our frontline service workers face those long commutes because it is stressful and expensive."   Sad

The analysis found the City of Sydney, Woollahra and Mosman council areas had the lowest share of local residents who worked in essential services. Kiama, Blue Mountains and Camden had highest share.

Separate census analysis published by The Herald last month showed the Sydney suburb home to the highest number of police was Glenmore Park near Penrith, about 55km from the central business district.
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