Retrofitting suburbs in south-east Queensland investing in infrastructure in city centres will help ease congestion as the region’s population swells.

Ross Elliott is the director of public policy organisation Suburban Futures and chairs the Lord Mayor’s Better Suburbs Initiative.

He said there will be another 1 million cars on south-east Queensland roads by 2041, an extra 1.5 million people.

“It’s not so much that’s it’s another 1.5 million people, but we are going to do it relatively quickly,” he told Greg Cary, filling in on 4BC Afternoons.

He said there are ways to retrofit suburbs and locations for new industries.

“Allowing these new uses to take root I think is very important,” he said.

“It creates the opportunity for people to have work closer to where they live and that is the only way we are going to deal with these congestion issues, to create the opportunity for shorter commutes even for people to walk or cycle to work.”

Press PLAY below to hear his ideas