A fire management expert has slammed changes to bushfire planning laws announced by the Victorian Government.

Landowners were banned from building in certain areas following the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. More than 5000 people saw the value of their plots plummet, and some warned they faced financial ruin.

The new reforms, announced last week by Planning Minister Matthew Guy, will allow homes to be built on affected land, subject to approval, with private fire bunkers permitted as an alternative safety measure.

The Government will also provide $700,000 to create the Bushfire Planning Assistance Fund, to ensure effective implementation of the reforms.

Kevin Tolhurst, Associate Professor of Fire Ecology and Management at the University of Melbourne, told insuranceNEWS.com.au the changes increase risk.

“What the Victorian Government is saying is that, providing you build a bunker, we can largely ignore the safety of the house because you have an alternative refuge.

“It is all about the protection of life. The house is of lesser importance, it’s expendable.

“There is some logic to it but it is reducing the number of strands of safety. It really means the bunker has to work, because that’s your only option.”

Dr Tolhurst says understanding of the effectiveness of bunkers is limited, and efforts to restrict development have been abandoned for “political expediency”.

“There are influential and well-off people challenging these things. A lot of people with very expensive blocks of land anticipated building their dream home, but then they were told they couldn’t.”

Meanwhile, the NSW Government has announced new laws making it easier for residents in bushfire-prone areas to clear vegetation around their properties.

They will be able to clear trees within 10 metres of their house and shrubs and other vegetation within 50 metres.

The Insurance Council of Australia says it welcomes both states’ reforms.

GM Policy Risk and Disaster Karl Sullivan told insuranceNEWS.com.au the council is not against development in bushfire-prone areas, so long as it is appropriate.

“We would have an issue if people started building unsafe houses just because they had a bunker,” he said. “But the circumstances where that will happen will be very, very few. Nobody wants to lose their house.”

He says the NSW changes are “very welcome”.

“Fuel loads are getting up and we are facing an El Nino,” he said. “The new laws allow people to take reasonable steps to reduce the risk.”