Healthy & Inclusive Places

Healthy & Inclusive Places Pillar Overview

Landcom’s Healthy & Inclusive Places pillar is focused on a leadership goal to ‘enhance Landcom’s international status for delivering world class liveable places, founded on equity, affordability and inclusion by 2036’.

Leadership Goal
LEADERSHIP OBJECTIVE To deliver healthy and inclusive places founded on equity for people of all ages and abilities.
LEADERSHIP TARGET To enhance Landcom’s international status for delivering world class liveable places founded on equity, affordability and inclusion. Residents report overall 90% satisfaction with quality of life.

Management Approach

Health, Equity & Inclusion, Community Connection & Safety

Landcom’s Healthy & Inclusive Places survey is a community engagement tool used to gather data from residents of Landcom communities. The survey uses stated satisfaction with questions related to design, community connection, safety, community wellbeing and housing affordability and diversity, based on the residents’ lived experience.
To benchmark Landcom’s results against industry standards, the survey also incorporates the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI), a joint initiative by Australian Unity, Deakin University and the Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development.³² 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 the PWI result to measure our success against our leadership goal of ‘enhance Landcom’s international status for delivering world class liveable places, founded on equity, affordability and inclusion by 2036’.
FY18 was the first year Landcom ran the Healthy & Inclusive Places survey, open for participation from March to May 2018. The survey was hosted online, and conducted via random telephone survey. A total of 501 qualifying responses³³ were received from participating projects, including Edmondson Park, Renwick, Oran Park, Thornton, The Ponds, Macarthur Heights, Spring Farm and Ebsworth (Green Square).
For our FY18 targets performance measured by results from our Healthy & Inclusive Places survey, see Health, Equity & Inclusion, Community Connection, & Safety below.

32 Australian Centre on Quality of Life (2018) http://www.acqol.com.au/instruments
33 Survey data was cleaned for non-qualifying responses, as outlined in the Terms & Conditions of participation. Responses omitted from the overall results included incomplete or duplicates, and non-residents of the participating communities.
Affordability & Diversity

In FY18, we adopted our Housing Affordability & Diversity Policy, 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.
It is Landcom’s intent to undertake strategic projects in Sydney and other parts of the state, demonstrating different housing solutions. New developments should include a mix of housing types, tenures, and price points to support the range of housing needs across communities. This includes Affordable Housing managed or owned by Community Housing Providers.
As a government organisation, we also believe it’s our role to take a leadership position in helping others facilitate affordable and diverse housing outcomes. In FY18, Landcom and the Department of Finance and Services launched the Community Housing Provider prequalification scheme, hosted on the NSW Government’s ProcurePoint website. This scheme gathers information from registered Community Housing Providers and makes it available to interested parties across government and the private sector in one cohesive platform. This initiative is focused on supporting government and industry to quickly and easily locate providers suited to their specific project needs.
For our FY18 performance against our Affordability & Diversity targets, see Affordability & Diversity Performance Results below.
Design

As a state owned corporation, 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.
In FY18, Landcom commenced the creation of its Design Advisory Panel, which will be launched in early FY19. The Panel provides advice to Landcom on design strategies to achieve architectural design excellence and quality of urban design outcomes across our project portfolio. The Panel is comprised of industry experts with experience across design and environmental consultancies, government entities and the development sector. The objectives of the Panel are to support Landcom project teams with a critical design review process, and provide access to industry experts for guidance and support.
Landcom’s aim is that this robust process will ensure enhanced design outcomes for the communities we deliver. As the Panel is due to commence its services in early FY19, our target related to design review was not in scope for reporting during FY18.
Engagement

In FY18 we also launched our Join In framework, which outlines our approach to stakeholder engagement. The framework has been developed in accordance with the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) principles, which seeks 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’.³⁴
Our approach to engaging stakeholders is underpinned by five principles: collaborative, purposeful, proactive, accountable and inclusive.
For our FY18 performance against our Design through Engagement targets, see Design through Engagement Performance Results below.

34 International Association for Public Participation Australasia (2018) https://www.iap2.org.au/Home
Our Future Priorities

Landcom is reviewing a number of initiatives as future opportunities to enhance our Health, Equity and Inclusion and Community Connection focus areas. Throughout FY18 we have evaluated development options where we can demonstrate new models of housing affordability and diversity, and in FY19 we anticipate announcing a number of future projects. We will also look to enhance partnership opportunities with Community Housing Providers.
We also commenced our collaboration with Sustainability Advantage to review leading mode shift opportunities, aimed at reducing car dependence and advancing technology (see Exploring Opportunities for Electric Vehicles).
In June 2018, Landcom and the NSW Department of Education signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore opportunities to work together on potential joint land use projects. This is the first step for Landcom in addressing our priority to advance innovative solutions in the delivery of education, health and wellbeing infrastructure to communities, based on shared value approaches. Over the coming year we will continue to advance our efforts here.
In FY19 we intend to adopt a Diversity & Inclusion Policy, and review how we can positively impact the health and wellbeing of Landcom staff.

Performance Results

See below our performance results for each of the reporting areas within our Healthy & Inclusive Places Pillar.

Health, Equity & Inclusion, Community Connection,
& Safety Performance Results

Landcom’s Sustainable Places Strategy addresses Health, Equity & Inclusion, Community Connection and Safety. These focus areas form part of our Healthy & Inclusive Places pillar and represent our social sustainability commitments.

FY18 Targets and Performance

Indicator	Objective	Target	FY18 Performance (weighted)
Health, Equity & Inclusion	To deliver healthy and inclusive places founded on equity for people of all ages and abilities.	2036 Goal: Residents report overall 90% satisfaction with quality of life	76%
		90% residents report high quality public, active and sustainable transport options to key amenities, services, public transport and employment	72%
		90% residents report high physical and mental health, reflecting project design, programs or events that encourage active, social and healthy eating lifestyles	89%
Community Connection	To nurture wellbeing and connection for all that live, work and recreate in our communities.	90% resident overall satisfaction with the integration of culture and heritage into all new projects	46%
Community Connection		90% resident reported community cohesion across all new projects, by fostering the integration of community networks and facilities into our projects	68%
Safety & Wellbeing	To promote a culture of health, safety and wellbeing.	Achieve a culture of safety throughout our organisation and on all Landcom projects, striving to achieve 90% overall community safety score at our projects	82%

FY18 Targets and Performance

In FY18, Landcom commenced its first Healthy & Inclusive Places Survey, seeking to understand how residents of our communities perceive their quality of life. Participating projects were deliberately selected for FY18, as Landcom sets its baseline data for these targets. These projects provide a diversity of project typologies, sizes, locations and stage of completion, ensuring robust baseline data outcomes.
A total of 501 qualifying responses³⁵ were received from participating projects, including Edmondson Park, Renwick, Oran Park, Thornton, The Ponds, Macarthur Heights, Spring Farm and Ebsworth (Green Square). Results reported represent Landcom’s portfolio wide, weighted performance. Weighting was determined based on the participating projects’ respective scale, and the percentage of project population that participated in the survey.
As illustrated by our FY18 Performance, Landcom projects set a positive baseline for our 2036 Goal for overall satisfaction with quality of life, achieving a score of 76.5%. This result is on par with the National Personal Wellbeing Index³⁶, which is our referenced independent benchmark.
Strong results are also reported for access to transport and walkability (72%), physical and mental health (89%) and safety (82%). However, we have lower performance baselines for integrating culture and heritage across our projects (46%), and community cohesion (68%).
In FY19, Landcom will seek to improve our performance related to the integration of culture and heritage into our projects, and enhancing residents’ satisfaction with community cohesion. As part of this process, we will be undertaking a review of our Community Development and Welcome Program, to evaluate past successes and determine areas of opportunity and action.
35 Survey data was cleaned for non-qualifying responses, as outlined in the Terms & Conditions of participation. Responses omitted from the overall results included incomplete or duplicates, and non-residents of the participating communities.
36 Personal Wellbeing Index, Deakin University & Australian Unity (2017) australianunity.com.au/.../wellbeing%20index/wellbeing%20index%2020
Health, Equity & Inclusion
As part of our efforts to enhance health, safety, equity and inclusion throughout FY18, Landcom participated in an expert advisory panel for the development of Everyone Can Play³⁷– a new toolkit for creating playspaces where children of all ages and abilities can participate in play. The guidelines have been created to ‘meet the needs of playspace planners, designers and creators’, and are centred on three key questions:
- Can I get there?
- Can I play?
- Can I stay?
The toolkit also includes an evaluation checklist intended to support the design of playspaces. Landcom has already commenced using the guidelines to support our projects, inform new playspaces currently in design and complete an audit across our existing projects to determine how ‘inclusive’ our existing assets are.
37 Everyone Can Play (2018) http://planning.nsw.gov.au/~/media/Files/DPE/Guidelines/everyone-can-play-draft-for-exhibition-guideline-2018-08.ashx
Community Connection
Landcom’s established Community Development (CD) and Welcome Program (WP) is how we contribute to connecting people and places. The CD/WP has been in place for over 10 years, with a suite of programs and events rolled out across our communities each year.
In FY18, seven of our communities included CD/WP activities, events or programs — and Landcom delivered these initiatives at five of the projects; these included Macarthur Heights, Thornton, Spring Farm, Sanctuary and Newbrook. Our total investment amounted to $446,364. Other communities with ongoing CD/WPs included Green Square and Oran Park Town. In both instances, activities, programs or events are delivered by others³⁸, as part of our development agreements.
Wherever possible we aim to align our CD/WP activities with our Strategy focus areas. In FY18 we delivered³⁹:
Health, Equity & Inclusion – nine programs, events or activities

Community Connection – 13 programs, events or activities

Engagement – 23 programs, events or activities.
Examples of this work include the following.
- At Macarthur Heights a community reference group has been established to assist our community facilitator in planning and running local events and activities, such as a sustainable living expo that was held earlier in the year.
- At Spring Farm the Community Development program has established a playgroup which is meeting in the Spring Farm Public School. The playgroup is currently working in collaboration with Macarthur Centre for Sustainable Living to run a series of mini-workshops teaching children about food chains, plants, insects and gardening.
- At Newbrook community members volunteered in Clean Up Australia Day and together, as part of the greater Airds region event, removed 4.5 tonnes of waste from the surrounding bushland.
With the adoption of our Sustainable Places Strategy, Landcom is also measuring the success of our CD/WP initiatives by adopting a measurable target for community cohesion. This is particularly relevant for our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Resilient Sydney finding that social cohesion is decreasing across Sydney, while social isolation is on the rise — contributing to chronic stresses that amplify the impacts of shock events.⁴⁰
In response to these findings, Landcom has partnered with the Welcome Dinner Project (WDP), aimed at reducing social isolation within and across communities which exhibit high cultural diversity. WDP was established in 2013, and brings new and established Australians together over dinner. The broad intent is to reduce social isolation, connect people and increase cross-cultural respect. Dinners are held in homes or community spaces, and attended by approximately 12 people, with an equal portion of established and new Australians, along with a trained facilitator.
The WDP encourages those who have attended a dinner to become a facilitator themselves, thus establishing a sustainable model that can be continued.
Landcom’s partnership with the WDP will see several dinners occur in our projects throughout FY19.
38 Green Square is a joint-venture project with Mirvac, where CD/WP initiatives are funded by Mirvac. In some instances, Landcom does contribute either via Voluntary Planning Agreement contributions or in-kind time from our staff. Oran Park Town CD/WP initiatives are delivered by Greenfields, the project land owner.
39 This data does not include Sanctuary. Sanctuary is a complete project and does not appear within the reporting boundaries for any other Sustainable Places target.
40 Resilient Sydney, A Strategy for City Resilience 2018 (2018), http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/303700/Resilient-Sydney-A-strategy-for-city-resilience-2018.pdf
Safety

Landcom is committed to ensuring our communities are safe places for people to live, work and play. This includes actual and perceived safety.
In previous years, Landcom has addressed safety via our Work Health and Safety Policy and Environmental Management System. This addresses safety within our organisation and at our project sites. We also engage professional urban designers and landscape architects across our projects to ensure Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is addressed.
In FY18, we have expanded our interest in safety to the lived experience of residents in our communities. We are seeking to ensure that actual and perceived safety is high, representing the successful application of CPTED principles in the design and delivery of our projects.

Affordability & Diversity Performance Results

Landcom’s Sustainable Places Strategy addresses Affordability & Diversity. This focus area forms part of our Healthy & Inclusive Places pillar, and is a representation of our commitment to delivering affordable and sustainable communities.

FY18 Targets and Performance

Indicator	Objective	Target	FY18 Performance
Affordability & Diversity	Deliver on Landcom’s commitments for affordable, diverse and sustainable homes.	Deliver 5-10% Affordable Housing across the Landcom portfolio	No new projects in scope ⁴¹
Affordability & Diversity		20% of medium to high density dwellings within all new projects achieve Livable Housing Australia Silver Certification (or equivalent)	No new projects in scope ⁴¹

41 These targets apply to the delivery of new projects in FY18; we did not deliver any new projects in FY18 for which this target is relevant.

Affordability & Diversity Performance Results

In FY18, we released our Housing Affordability & Diversity Policy, to drive the delivery of diverse, affordable and accessible homes. It’s important that housing types and tenures meet local demographic diversity and affordability needs. We must also ensure the housing we deliver to market remains current, and reflects the changing needs of communities and household compositions.
During this reporting period, none of our projects were in scope for reporting against our new Housing Affordability & Diversity targets, however we have presented our work in progress to enable reporting in FY19.
FY18 Targets and Performance

In FY18, our targets related to Affordable Housing and Livable Housing Certification had no projects in scope for reporting. These targets are only applicable to new projects within Landcom’s project portfolio from the date of the Policy’s adoption (November 2017).
Affordability and Diversity in our Communities
In FY18 we have undertaken a range of research and resource development activities to help us better understand housing affordability and diversity in our communities, and enable us to achieve our targets.
As part of our Healthy & Inclusive Places survey (see Healthy & Inclusive Places Pillar Overview above) we asked residents in Landcom communities about their satisfaction with access to reasonable quality housing for rent or purchase, diversity of housing options, and if they would look for a new home within their existing community should their housing needs change. We also sought to understand the housing stress of residents, by their ability to raise $2000 in an emergency.⁴² The data collected from this survey provides Landcom with a more granular level of detail regarding satisfaction with key housing metrics than we can obtain from other sources, such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Our results highlighted the following findings:
- 52% of residents felt there was access to reasonable quality housing to rent or buy in their area; this highlighted that many residents (36%) didn’t think this was the case and that some (12%) weren’t sure.
- 73% of residents felt that there were a broad range of homes of different sizes, types and prices in their area.
- 35% of residents didn’t think, or weren’t sure, whether they would look for another home within their existing community should their needs change.
- 38% of residents would be unable or would struggle to raise $2000 in an emergency. This figure was highest for those with a mortgage (versus renters and outright owners).
We also worked with .id, a specialist demographics consultancy, to develop a suite of Housing Indicators for 29 Local Government Areas across Greater Sydney and Regional NSW. This work will assist us in understanding the specific housing needs of an area, including the affordability, diversity, suitability and availability of housing.
In FY19 we will focus on working with the project teams to build their awareness and knowledge of housing affordability and diversity through a range of training opportunities and access to resources and toolkits.
42 The ability to raise $2000 in case of an emergency is a standard Australian Bureau of Statistics method of capturing and measuring mortgage stress; ‘Household Income, living standards and financial stress’, Australian ABS: http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/793D1402EE51BA8BCA256A5D0004F5D5?Open
Affordable Housing

Landcom defines Affordable 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 community housing sector in NSW is regulated by the Registrar of Community Housing.⁴³
Landcom’s Housing Affordability & Diversity Policy requires 5%-10% of housing in our projects to be provided as Affordable Rental Housing, owned or management by a CHP. The CHP may build the homes, and will manage eligibility and waiting lists, tenant’s services and property maintenance.
In FY18 we had no new projects in scope for reporting against our Affordable Housing targets. While Showground and Tallawong had EOIs released to market, neither site had been awarded to a successful proponent during the reporting year.
Since the adoption of this target in November 2017, Landcom has sought to establish our baseline datasets, and tools that will support our organisation to advance the delivery of Affordable Housing. This has included taking stock of any Affordable Housing already delivered within our current portfolio, embedding the provision of Affordable Housing in feasibilities for new projects, and working with project teams to identify opportunities to include Affordable Housing within future stages of existing projects.
43 http://www.rch.nsw.gov.au/
Diverse Housing

Landcom’s Housing Affordability & Diversity Policy identifies a ‘Corporate Commitment [to] include Housing Diversity Pilot Projects to demonstrate new models where appropriate”.⁴⁴ Since the adoption of the Policy, we have decided to establish a numeric target for housing diversity. This is currently under development.
In FY18, we have laid the groundwork for reporting against this new target from FY19 onwards. This has included a review of Landcom’s existing projects, including their intended housing type composition (almost 25,000 dwellings) and types of tenure or management.
This included development of the Landcom Housing Monitor, an Excel tool designed to collect detailed housing typology information from project teams on an ongoing basis. Updating the Housing Monitor is now a key component of our annual business planning process, and includes the ability to forecast future development stages — allowing Landcom to have a clear view of whether we are on track to meet our Housing targets for the life of a project.
In FY19, we anticipate Showground and Tallawong to be our first projects in scope for reporting against our Housing targets. As these projects are being released to market via a competitive tender process, Landcom hopes to see positive uptake and engagement from industry.
44 https://www.landcom.com.au/assets/Our-approach/1711-Landcom-Housing-Policy.pdf
Universal Housing

Landcom has a long history of influencing positive outcomes for accessibility within the residential sector. In 2009 Landcom developed the Universal Housing Guidelines. These Guidelines were then used to inform the Livable Housing Australia (LHA) Guideline, launched in 2010 and now in its fourth edition.
To support the intent of Landcom’s Housing Affordability & Diversity Policy, our Sustainable Places Strategy incorporates a target of 20% of all new medium and high density dwellings, to be LHA Silver Level Certified.⁴⁵ LHA Silver performance level incorporates seven core design elements that focus on the key structural and spatial elements that are critical to ensure future flexibility and adaptability of the home. Incorporating these features avoids costly home modifications, if required at a later date.
In FY18 we had no new projects in scope for reporting against our Livable Housing target. While Showground and Tallawong had EOIs released to market, neither site has been awarded to a developer at the time of reporting.
However, throughout the year we also worked with project teams to determine Landcom’s internal comprehension of LHA, and other forms of accessible housing. We determined that there is significant opportunity to upskill our development and construction teams in the various types of housing accessibility features and certifications. To progress this, we are continuing to work with an industry expert to create staff training materials, and identify the greatest opportunities and threats in the development cycle when integrating design accessibility features and certifications into assets.
45 Alternate certifications or design standards will be accepted, provided they materially meet the design features and intent established by LHA.

Design through Engagement Performance Results

Landcom’s Sustainable Places Strategy addresses Community Engagement and Design. These focus areas form part of our Healthy & Inclusive Places pillar, and is a representation of our social sustainability commitments to excellence in design and meaningful engagement with our stakeholders.

FY18 Targets and Performance

Indicator	Objective	Target	FY18 Performance
Design through engagement	To optimise the quality of design and place, and drive strong engagement with our communities and stakeholders.	All new projects to undergo peer review through the Landcom Design Advisory Panel, or equivalent Design Review Panel	Indicator not in scope⁴⁶
Design through engagement		All new projects to apply stakeholder engagement framework Join In, aligned to industry best practice	Indicator not in scope⁴⁷

46 Landcom’s Design Advisory Panel was not established within the FY18 reporting year. Landcom will commence reporting against this indicator in FY19.

47 Landcom’s Join In framework was drafted and finalised in FY18. Projects have commenced its adoption, however the Framework will not come into full effect for reporting until FY19.

FY18 Targets and Performance

In FY18, Landcom released the Join In framework as part of our commitment to engagement, and began to establish its Design Advisory Panel to address design excellence. However, our targets are not in scope for reporting during FY18.
Community Engagement
In FY18, we launched our Join In framework. The framework sets out Landcom’s approach to stakeholder engagement, and from FY19 onwards we have set ourselves a target that all projects will apply it. The approach is aligned with the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) principles, ’which seeks 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’.⁴⁸ Our approach to engaging stakeholders is underpinned by five principles: collaborative, purposeful, proactive, accountable and inclusive.
Join In was finalised and adopted in FY18, and we commenced its implementation with an assessment of current projects to review:
- Specific statutory requirements for engagement
- Stakeholders, their needs, interests and views, and their expectations for engagement
- Existing or future contracts with communications and engagement scope, and
- Opportunities for communication and engagement to support and inform project delivery.
As the majority of Landcom’s current projects are in the later stages of delivery, there is limited scope to actively engage communities and other stakeholders in project planning. The focus for these projects is routine communications to ensure stakeholders are kept informed and notified of civil works, settlement dates and delivery of public benefits.
However, several projects were identified as a priority for communications and engagement planning. These include Sydney Metro Northwest Places, Wentworth Point, Edmondson Park and Lachlan’s Line. Across these projects, Landcom intends to focus on:
- Partnering with Transport for NSW to support place planning and activation around new stations as part of the Sydney Metro Northwest Places Program
- Infrastructure works at Lachlan’s Line, including the widening of Delhi Road and the new pedestrian bridge connecting to North Ryde Station
- Partnering with Roads and Maritime Services to support design and delivery of a large new riverside park in Wentworth Point
- Planning for the town centre to the north of Edmondson Park Station and future uses of heritage buildings at Bardia Barracks
- Subdivision works at Riverstone to unlock developable land on behalf of landowners.
To meet these needs, in FY18 we commenced preparation of communication and engagement strategies and plans for these priority projects – in line with our Join In framework. We also commenced a process to review and update our corporate website as a more effective communication platform for updates on priority projects.
In FY18 we also strengthened our organisation’s capacity by creating new learning and development programs for staff. The focus of these programs is to support our staff in maintaining healthy working relationships with local councils and key agencies with whom we partner to deliver projects.
In FY19 the focus will be on further embedding the Join In framework across the organisation through staff training, and on new projects, as well as on developing an approach to measuring the efficacy and value of our community engagement.

48 International Association for Public Participation Australasia (2018) https://www.iap2.org.au/Home
Design

In FY18, Landcom commenced the creation of its Design Advisory Panel, which will be launched in early FY19.

Case Studies

Healthy and Inclusive Places

Community Housing Provider Pre-qualification Scheme

Healthy and Inclusive Places

A New Life for Bardia Barracks