Healthy &
Inclusive Places

Landcom adopts a holistic approach to the delivery of healthy and inclusive places founded on equity for people of all ages and abilities. 

For new projects we undertake social needs assessments to understand what amenities, services or programs are currently available to the immediate and surrounding community, and what gaps may need to be filled. We use this information to inform our future planning for infrastructure and community development programming. 

As residents begin to live onsite we commence a continuous feedback loop via our Healthy & Inclusive Places survey (HIPs). This is an engagement tool used to gather data from residents of Landcom communities measuring satisfaction across dimensions such as design, community connection, safety, wellbeing, housing affordability and diversity, based on the residents’ lived experience. We have adopted performance targets across these dimensions, striving for continuous improvement to meet the quality of life expectations of current and future residents. 

To benchmark Landcom’s results against industry standards, the survey also incorporates the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI)²⁷. The PWI is designed to measure satisfaction with quality of life across seven domains: standard of living, health, life achievement, relationships, safety, community connectedness and future security. Landcom uses resident satisfaction across the core elements of the PWI to measure success against our leadership goal to ‘enhance Landcom’s international status for delivering world class liveable places, founded on equity, affordability and inclusion by 2036’. 

We use the results and resident feedback from the HIPs survey each year to drive performance improvements in the way we deliver our projects. This can include adjusting our approach to the design and delivery of future stages of a project or influencing the way we deliver community development programs and services. 

Based on low FY18 performance results against our Community Connection targets we committed to undertake an evaluation of our Community Development and Welcome Program to determine past successes and areas of opportunity. The assessment found Landcom would benefit from an overarching framework to guide the way we approach and deliver community development. A shift to impact reporting would also support consistent evaluation of success and ability to communicate value creation. 

In FY22, despite the ongoing challenges of COVID-19, we continued to implement our community development approach by leveraging strategic partnerships to deliver initiatives that foster community connection and a focus on health and wellbeing. In FY22 we saw the impact of our approach, with positive results, particularly in terms of health and wellbeing, reported from participants of our individual community development programs. 

For our FY22 performance results measured by our Healthy & Inclusive Places survey, see Health, Equity & Inclusion, Community Connection, and Safety. 

_________________________

^{27 International Wellbeing Group (2013). Personal Wellbeing Index: 5th Edition. Melbourne: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, Deakin University}

In FY21 Landcom updated our Housing Affordability & Diversity Policy (now referred to as Housing Policy), setting new targets to drive the delivery of diverse, affordable and accessible homes. The Policy is a clear reflection of Landcom’s commitment to create more affordable and sustainable communities. Our new targets came into effect on new projects from FY22. For all projects commenced between FY17 and FY21 Landcom’s previous Housing Affordability & Diversity Policy still applies, and we will continue to report the performance of those projects against the legacy policy, alongside our reporting against the updated policy. 

Landcom’s targets in place for FY22 require a minimum 10% of housing in our projects to be provided as Affordable homes. This target is comprised of 5% Affordable Rental Housing. Landcom defines affordable Rental Housing as dwellings managed or owned by a Community Housing Provider (CHP). CHPs are not-for-profit organisations that build and/ or manage housing for eligible people on very low, low and moderate incomes or who are unable to access appropriate housing in the private market. The remaining 5% of the target may be comprised of Affordable Rental Housing and/or other housing products which improve housing affordability more generally. 

These include: 

• private market housing for purchase which is affordable for moderate income households or below 
• private market housing for purchase by the ‘first home buyer’ segment of the market 
• housing products which are delivered using design or construction techniques that lower the purchase price and contribute to improving housing affordability 
• innovative tenure models that provide households with a form of home ownership or other tenure that improves housing affordability, such as fractional ownership and shared ownership schemes. 

We also address housing diversity and accessibility. We aim to deliver a range of tenure options for owners and renters, improve the range of home options available in the market especially for first home buyers, and ensure people have the ability to access fit-for-purpose housing throughout their lifetime. From FY22 Landcom’s Housing Policy requires that all new projects deliver 15% diverse housing. 

We complement this by advocating for and requiring accessible homes that include Universal Design principles and are Liveable Housing Australia (LHA) certified so that any person can use a dwelling, irrespective of age, level of mobility, or condition of health. 

From FY22 all medium and high density housing in new Landcom projects will be required to include at least 30% housing that is universally designed. This means the housing will meet or exceed LHA SiIver Certification. Landcom also encourages universal design for detached housing. Project teams are also strongly encouraged to deliver more than 30% universally designed housing where feasible. 

For our FY22 performance against our Affordability & Diversity targets, see Affordability & Diversity Performance Results. 

We maintain a commitment to excellence in design and meaningful stakeholder participation from all those who have a stake in the evolution of our cities, including the communities which know them best. 

Landcom has an established Design Review Panel (DRP). The DRP provides advice to Landcom on strategies to achieve design excellence and quality of urban design outcomes across our project portfolio. The DRP consists of four experts in the field of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and urban planning. They provide expert review of projects in concept or masterplan design, with the aim of achieving design excellence. The objectives of the DRP are to support Landcom project teams with a critical design review process and provide access to industry experts for guidance and support. 

As part of our management approach all projects are required to present to the DRP as they progress through the masterplan and design stages. In addition, active projects that make significant reviews to future stages must also present to the DRP. Landcom’s aim is that this robust process will ensure enhanced design outcomes for the communities we deliver. 

In late FY21 we updated the membership and focus of our DRP and adopted new Terms of Reference to ensure that this internal design review function is efficient and focused on our core business needs. The changes included: 

• reducing the size of the Panel from seven members and a chair, to three members and a chair 
• focusing the Panel’s remit to be predominantly on project design related advice 
• renaming the Panel to be the Design Review Panel. 

Landcom’s Join In Framework guides our approach to stakeholder engagement. The Framework includes a charter and protocol that have been developed in accordance with the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) guidelines, which seek to ‘promote and improve the practice of public participation or community and stakeholder engagement, incorporating individuals, governments, institutions and other entities that affect the public interest throughout the world.²⁸

_________________________

^{28 International Association for Public Participation Australasia (2018)}

We aim to be:

For our FY21 performance against our Design through Engagement targets, see Design through Engagement Performance Results below.

Our Sustainable Places Strategy identifies a number of future opportunities to enhance our Health, Equity and Inclusion and Community Connection focus areas. This includes reviewing our targets relating to our Health, Equity and Inclusion and Community Connection focus areas to ensure we are responding to changing market needs.