Greens NSW planning spokesperson Jamie Parker MP says the NSW Government has affirmed their anti-community credentials with the release of its report on the Review of Infrastructure Contributions in NSW.
Rather than recommend a Betterment Levy to share land-value windfalls that are created by rezoning decisions – a policy that could have netted $8.2billion in 2018-19 if NSW then had a scheme similar to the one currently operating in the ACT – the report suggests minor reforms to rate pegging that would only allow councils to earn extra revenue through population growth.
You can read the Productivity Commissioner’s full report here and the NSW Greens submission here.
Greens NSW planning spokesperson Jamie Parker MP:
“This review’s recommendations ensure developers can continue to carve up the spoils of growth while minimising their obligations to the communities they disrupt.
“Because developers aren’t chipping in enough, councils are constantly playing catch-up trying to tackle flow-on impacts of huge new developments.
“The NSW Greens want to see an end to rate-pegging because it sets an arbitrary limit to raising funds and is a barrier to investment in local services.
“It’s disappointing that the Productivity Commissioner has come down on the side of developers not the community by only recommending some minor alterations to the scheme.
“The changes will not only encourage councils to approve new developments but they completely let developers off the hook when it comes to investing into the community.
"This will only deliver massive profits to wealthy developers while passing on the costs of everything over and above the basic infrastructure to residents," he said.
Published 14 December 2020
