Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 census: Tamworth Regional Council holds firm on Blueprint 100 despite slow growth during COVID

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 census data revealed an extra 3407 people moved to the Tamworth local government area since the 2016 census, when the population was 59,663.

The city is ticking along, but if it wants to meet Tamworth Regional Council's (TRC) ambitious plan to grow the population to 100,000 people by 2041, the pace of growth will need to speed up.

TRC's growth and prosperity director Jacqueline O'Neill told the Leader it's difficult to grow during a pandemic, but the council's aspiration has not changed.

"Blueprint 100 states clearly we're aspirationally looking at 100,000 by that 2041 mark - and certainly we are seeing the region grow," she said.

"What we do know is that all the indicators for growth are very good - investment in the region is growing rapidly, the vacancy rate is still very low - so our aspiration for 100,000 remains."

While Tamworth grew steadily, nearby Armidale gave the country music capital a run for its money, growing its population by almost 6000 people over the last five years to more than 29,000.

Gunnedah, Moree, Glen Innes, Walcha and Inverell all experienced growth, but the Liverpool Plains has gone backwards. Its population has declined from 7687 during the 2016 census to 7551 last year.

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The region's housing is also struggling to keep up with growth, the ABS data shows.

Tamworth experienced a bit of an uptick, with the number dwellings reaching just over 23,500.

Of those, more than 20,000 are houses and less than 500 are flats or apartments, with even fewer people living in apartments now than five years ago.

PRD licensee Mark Sleiman said that's because no one is building units in Tamworth anymore.

"No one is living in them, because they're not building any more of them, so the supply of units in Tamworth has gone down because construction over the last 20 years has been predominately houses," he said.

But, he expects the 2026 census will show a different result, with TRC focusing on incentivising private landlords to develop affordable housing.

"I think council will start to be more lenient to people looking to build dual occupancies to house more people because that's what we need," he said.

Ms O'Neill said the council is doing a number of things to provide more housing, including speeding up development application approvals.

"We're seeing quite a number of development approvals come through and we're trying to get through those as quickly as we can - there's a lot of demand in that space," she said.

"We've got ongoing talks with organisations such as Homes North with regards to supporting them in terms of the social sector.

"We're also talking to Crown Land with regards to possible repurposing of land to re-use for housing and we're encouraging investors to invest here in terms of housing."

Tamworth Property Co real estate agent Amanda Knox said she expects the growth the city is experiencing to plateau at some point, but it can still reach 100,000 people.

"I do think we'll continue to grow here in Tamworth, however I'm not sure it will continue at the same rate - it may slow a little bit," she said.

"Over the past few years COVID has had a big impact, a lot of people have relocated from the city to Tamworth and more regional areas, house affordability had played a big aspect as well.

"There is a lot of interest in building more apartments and units, and more affordable housing in Tamworth given the growth that they're predicting."

Mr Sleiman agreed, while the city is not on track in the short term, the infrastructure that has been marked for Tamworth will be able to sustain 100,000 people.

"Obviously we're not on track yet, but there was a little thing that injected itself in the world called COVID, which ruined a lot of plans, and that includes growth plans for a council," he said.

"If we don't reach 100,000, we'll be damn close."

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