The population and new dwelling constructions in the Victorian regional city of Sale has declined since the 1980s and Sale has faced great difficulties over the last fifteen years in creating additional employment opportunities. In 2001 Wellington Shire Council prepared the Sale & Environs District Report, a local housing land supply strategy that found that there was an undersupply of land zoned for housing purposes in Sale. The housing strategy's recommendations included a planning scheme amendment proposal to rezone additional land for housing on the fringes of Sale. Based on very little evidence, the Sale council responded to the economic restructuring and reduced supply of jobs by arguing that more land was required for housing development to stimulate economic growth. The planning scheme amendment proposal to increase the ready supply of residential land was placed on public exhibition during 2002. In 2003 the Minister for Planning refused to permit the council to rezone the land. This is the background for the principal research question, which asks, "Why did the key urban land use planning proposal for an increase in available residential land come to be seen as an appropriate response to a decline in Sale's economic growth in the context of evidence that economic development drives housing demand and not the ready supply of residential land?”. This thesis addresses this question by exploring how Sale's local experience with economic development and housing connects to the broader relationship between economic development and housing provision in Australian regional cities. This thesis analyses the regional economic development and housing provision literature through an historical analysis of Sale's complex economic development and housing relationship since World War II. By examining this relationship it is argued that Sale’s stagnant economic climate has resulted in fewer large-scale economic development projects being developed since the mid-1990s. This supports the conclusion that the promotion of housing supply by the Sale council since the 1990s was the wrong way to respond to economic restructuring and reduced supply of jobs. A detailed examination of the Sale & Environs District Report 2001 and its implementation reveals that there was little or no focus amongst most of the actor groups on the broader economic development issues and where Sale's housing market fitted in. The lack of focus and understanding by the actor groups raises important broader implications for public policy makers who hope to use a housing-led response to address economic restructuring and reduced supply of jobs in cities and towns like Sale
