Ryde Liberals vote to exclude bus drivers, cleaners from affordable housing

Ryde councillors have rejected staff advice on affordable housing and removed a selection of job types from the “key worker” eligibility list, including bus drivers, cleaners and retail workers.

What happened

A recommendation from Ryde Council staff said councillors should endorse a policy that made affordable housing available to “key workers” in jobs such as law enforcement, nursing, teaching, cleaning, bus and delivery driving and retail.

This was a continuation of the previous policy.

The debate

Some councillors, however, were not happy with the breadth of the list and wanted certain jobs — drivers, retail workers and cleaners — to be removed from the “key worker” policy.

Under the bus

Those in support of the decision to remove certain jobs — seven Liberal councillors and one independent — argued the policy should prioritise what they saw as more important occupations, given the small number of available dwellings.

“When everybody is a key worker, nobody is a key worker,” said Councillor Cameron Last.

“Key worker” definitions are another piece in the complicated jigsaw that is NSW housing policy.

What you do matters

“Key worker housing” is the same as affordable housing, but instead of basing a tenant’s eligibility off income thresholds, it uses their occupation.

Dwellings are reserved for workers in specific industries, typically teachers, police and nurses, but can also include retail, cleaning and transport workers.

The NSW Government leaves it to local councils to define what constitutes a key worker, based on their needs.

In 2025, there were 75 key worker housing units in Ryde. The council has a stated ambition to have 1,000 by 2035.

Twin losses

A coalition of Labor and independent councillors moved an amendment to restore the policy to its original definitions, but was voted down five votes to eight by the council’s Liberal majority voting bloc. 

That failed amendment had also wanted the rate of affordable housing provided by developments in Ryde to be increased from five percent to 15.

“All these developers are implementing the minimum, it’s not right,” Councillor Roy Maggio told the Lorikeet. “I’m in the construction industry and I understand how it works. You’ve got to bump it up to 15 percent.” 

Mayor Trenton Brown argued against increasing the percentage, claiming that giving developers an easier run at projects would result in more overall affordable housing units being constructed. 

The affordable housing policy was adopted nine votes to four.