30-year Infrastructure Plan a great start

30-year Infrastructure Plan a great start

Property Council welcomes the long-term focus of the 30-year Infrastructure Plan released today, but suggests the Plan could go further in addressing funding.

The Plan provides a great step forward in Central and Local Government infrastructure planning and spend with $110 billion of investment over the next 10 years. It also gives the development community better certainty.

Property Council chief executive Connal Townsend says the Government’s focus on planning legislation is timely.

“We’ve been calling for a closer look at planning legislation including the Resource Management Act, so that land-use planning is better aligned with infrastructure planning. I’m very pleased to see the Plan acknowledging the need to align key pieces of planning legislation including the RMA, Local Government Act, and the Land Transport Management Act, with wider urban development, housing and infrastructure plans.”

But he says that funding remains the key issue. “Local Government needs a suite of tools to fund efficient infrastructure. It’s unfair to load the costs of infrastructure on the development community and ratepayers through development contributions and rates.

“Bolder funding options and innovation is required and the Government must enable this. We need a bi-partisan agreement on how to fund New Zealand’s future infrastructure.”

The Plan’s focus on procurement governance is positive, along with non-asset driven solutions such as demand management. But Mr Townsend says there is no silver bullet to funding infrastructure and demand management tools are not a complete answer.

“Councils across New Zealand are facing infrastructure funding issues for opposing reasons; fast-growing councils need to fund infrastructure to meet forecasted population growth, while smaller councils are struggling to fund the necessary maintenance and renewal of existing infrastructure to the standards that those communities demand.

“I’m pleased to see the Government acknowledge that decision-makers need to take whole-of-life costs into account, and ensure that the overall costs and timing are consistent with demand.”

Property Council welcomes the Government’s ‘service’ approach, requiring a closer working relationship between central and local government and other stakeholders, along with decision-making that is based on data and evidence.

ENDS

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