The release today of the report of Portfolio Committee No 7 of the Legislative Council. – Planning and Environment, entitled ‘Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Infrastructure Contributions) Bill 2021’ recommends that “the Bill should not proceed, until the draft regulations have been developed and released for consultation and the reviews into the rate pegging system, benchmarking and the essential works list have been published by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.”

The recommendations of the NSW Productivity Commissioner into infrastructure contributions were broadly welcomed by the UDIA and if implemented successfully had the potential to make a major contribution to fixing the NSW housing and affordability crisis, support economic growth and create jobs.

The recommendations are a package of reforms including to local infrastructure contributions, regional infrastructure contributions and land value contributions. If implemented as a whole, they had the potential to speed up the delivery of key enabling infrastructure and housing supply. The final report can be found here.

“At a time when the construction industry is on its knees due to the COVID restrictions, confidence and investment are falling, the last thing the industry needs is more uncertainty from the Legislative Council on reforms to Infrastructure Contributions. This will exacerbate the housing supply and affordability crisis across the state, hold back the economic recovery from COVID and undermine jobs”, said Steve Mann, CEO, UDIA NSW.

UDIA urges the Legislative Council to get on with passing the legislation as it is, reducing industry uncertainty.

The full report from Portfolio Committee No 7 of the Legislative Council can be found here.

ENDS

Media Enquiries:
Deanna Lane 0416 295 898 or dlane@udiansw.com.au.
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