Labor announced its plan to introduce targets as part ofits landmark housing statement in September. Since then,it has been consulting behind closed doors with property industry groups as part of a so-called affordability partnership signed alongside the housing statement.

Urban Development Institute of Australia (Victoria) chief executive Linda Allison said the institute supported the introduction of local housing targets,although she had not yet seen details. “It’s important that we know where future housing is earmarked to go,” she said.

Allison said that while the government was focused on getting more homes built in established suburbs,targets were also important for the 30 per cent of housing that would still be developed in greenfield estates on the urban fringe.

“At present,there is no commitment by the government to enable this supply,and we would welcome greater transparency on delivery against these targets,” she said. But other housing experts and commentators question the effectiveness of targets.

University of Sydney professor of planning Nicole Gurran said that while targets were useful to ensure municipalities had adequate land zoned to accommodate projected housing need,they were not “magic”.

“In Australia,since 98 to 99 per cent of all homes are built by the market,targets are just a standard way to ensure the planning system accommodates growth – the rest depends on market conditions,” she said.

Economist and housing policy specialist Cameron Murray criticised housing targets as “political theatre” and “not worth the paper they’re written on”.

He said targets seemed to have had little impact in New South Wales or London and questioned the point of introducing them in Victoria.

Murray said the current lack of housing was not due to “pesky” councils blocking apartments but to an economic climate that made building apartments unprofitable for developers.

“There is this hidden assumption that the market wants to build way more than it is. The reality is that we can’t make developers make less money,” he said.

On Tuesday,Opposition Leader John Pesutto attacked the idea of a universal liveability charge,saying it was a new tax that would be passed on to home owners and tenants.

“What our state needs is leadership in terms of infrastructure and leadership in terms of getting the costs of construction down in Victoria because it is becoming exceedingly expensive to build new homes in Victoria compared to other states,” Pesutto said.

Premier Jacinta Allan said the government was using “every lever we possibly can to build more homes across the state”.

“We need councils to also do more. It’s not good enough to put up the shutters and say we shouldn’t build any more homes here.”

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