Bulky goods retailers celebrate after Victorian Government announces planning changes

The bulky goods sector is celebrating after Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy announced a swag of changes to retail zoning laws that are expected to see “thousands of jobs” created in the sector.

Guy announced yesterday at the Bulky Goods Retailers Association Victorian forum that the Liberal Government will widen the definition of bulky goods retailing in the state to include outdoor equipment and recreational supplies, pet supplies, homewares, baby equipment and accessories and sporting, cycling and children’s play equipment.

The Government will also abandon a move by the previous Labor State Government that would have resulted in bulky goods retailers being barred from setting up on land zoned for industrial purposes.

Guy is also proposing to remove a restriction that means bulky goods retailers must have more than 1,000 square metres of floor space, which will allow bulky goods retailers to adopt smaller store formats.

Phillipa Kelly, executive director of the Bulky Goods Retailers Association, says the changes mean Victoria has one of the most supportive planning regimes for the sector in Australia.

“We had made representations to the Government in relation to what our key issues were and it’s apparent that the Minister has been listening,” Kelly told SmartCompany this morning.

“These changes will free the market up tremendously. There will be millions of dollars and thousands of jobs that will come into Victoria, there’s no doubt.”

Kelly says the Government’s decision to reverse a proposed ban on bulky goods retail in industrial areas – Guy says local councils will have the power to approve permit requests on a case-by-case basis – will remove uncertainty for the sector.

“If that prohibition had been put in place, existing premises would have been protected, but once a retailer moved they would not have been able to be re-let as bulky goods stores.”

Guy told the forum the changes were likely to be made in “weeks not months” and said the Government was keen to respond to recommendations made in a recent Productivity Commission report into the structure of the retail sector.

The Commission said in its recommendations that “state and territory governments should reduce the compliance costs associated with planning systems and development approvals by implementing the leading practices identified in the Commission’s recent benchmarking report on planning, zoning and development assessments.”

Kelly says her organisation will now be calling on the New South Wales Government to follow Victoria’s lead. She is particularly concerned with a recent change to the definition of a bulky goods centre, which means bulky goods retailers must have a large area for handling, display and storage of goods and direct vehicular access to the site by the public.

“There are certainly some issues in NSW that we have brought to the Government’s attention and we hope they will take heed of the lead that the Victorian Government has shown and emulate their neighbours.”