Last year, the LNP-led Council made big developers richer by cutting their infrastructure fees by up to 75%. They have continued this for the new financial year, but opened it up even further to most new multi-dwelling developments. Despite raising rates our council income remains the same, because they have given away all of the extra ‘rates income’ to cutting developer charges. Infrastructure charges are fees that the Council collect when new developments are built. They are a type of local government tax that ensures we can provide our parks, community facilities, footpaths, public transport etc, as our city grows.
Expanding these council amenities and services is vital for creating a healthy lifestyle, vibrant public spaces, alleviating congestion and addressing the climate crisis. Infrastructure that keeps pace with our city’s population growth is critical for a sustainable and liveable city.
The major impediments to more housing development is the impact of inflation, landbanking and labour shortages. Industry research does not suggest council infrastructure charges are a barrier to increasing housing supply. This is just a massive handout to developers and does nothing to solve the lack of affordable housing. What we urgently need is more social and affordable housing. The BCC administration could support this by requiring a proportion of new developments to be affordable housing, as many cities around the world are doing, including Paris, London and New York.
Our existing planning scheme already has an excess of zoning opportunities to build enough new dwellings for the next 10-20 years, to meet projected growth. Developers are just not building, mostly due to rising inflation as this translates into better economic returns for landowners to landbank. Landbanking simply means their vacant land continues to increase in value, without actually developing it. The Greens have been lobbying strongly for local government vacancy taxes for years, but councils like the BCC refuse to adopt them as they don’t want to upset their developer mates.
The Planning Act is set by the State Government and adopted by Council. Check out The Greens plan to make developers pay their fair share to fund the services and infrastructure our community needs.