How does the local government aim to solve Tamworth's housing crisis?

Councillors voted last week to put a draft of the new Tamworth Regional Housing Strategy on public exhibition.

The strategy aims to support Tamworth's growing population by "promoting diverse and creative housing solutions."

"This will take us forward into the future with policy direction on not only social housing, but the development of affordable housing, general housing, and worker accommodation which will have a big impact on us into the future," Tamworth mayor Russell Webb said.

At a recent business summit Tamworth Regional Council general manager Paul Bennett said local councils should "be brave" and start building affordable housing themselves.

However, council's team leader of strategic planning Mitch Gillogly has said that's not a decision council would be prepared to make in the near future.

"One of the actions is to look at partnering up with other agencies to see what [housing options] could be provided and what assistance council can provide to those agencies," he said.

He said any discussion of council providing financial assistance or acting as a developer "would be part of further investigations" with agencies like Homes North and other stakeholders.

Mr Gillogly said one of the major focuses for the strategy is fixing the shortage of one to two-bedroom homes in Tamworth, something acutely felt by the region's growing proportion of single or two-person households.

"The housing crisis is different for every LGA [Local Government Area]. We're not the same as Sydney," he said.

"We've got enough residential-zoned land to cater for the next 20 years. What we've really got to look at is providing diversity with the lot sizes and housing types."

Another issue for Tamworth is a backlog of planning applications due to worker shortages in council, though the city planner highlighted council has managed an average of 384 housing approvals each year for the last four years despite the challenge.

"We can approve as many as possible but they've still gotta get built on the ground. That's the other thing we're looking to improve by looking into other types of housing: temporary workers accommodation, manufactured homes, and things like that," Mr Gillogly said.

The strategy has five key priorities: Provide sustainable growth supported by infrastructure; Increase diversity and choice in housing; Improve housing affordability and reduce housing costs; Facilitate liveable communities; and Promote rural communities.

It was developed in conjunction with business groups, developers, councillors, the local real estate industry and community. An online community survey received 351 contributions.

The Draft Tamworth Regional Housing Strategy will soon be available to view on council's Have Your Say website. It will be on public exhibition for a period of 28 days.