ACT

Please don't make us suffer another Crown entity

National's plan to create a new crown infrastructure entity is a weak response to New Zealand's infrastructure and housing shortfall, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

"Setting up yet another state entity to manage infrastructure will grow bureaucracy, suppress innovation, and risk cronyism," says Mr Seymour.

"Responding to a problem by a creating a new arm of government sounds more like a Labour policy than an idea from the centre-right."

"It's a convoluted response to a simple problem: Councils can't afford the infrastructure needed to close New Zealand's housing shortfall.

"Rather than having central government step in and build infrastructure, we could simply ensure that councils have the resources to build infrastructure themselves.

"The fairest way of doing this would be to tie funding to building activity. The more building activity there is in a council's jurisdiction, the more infrastructure funding they should get. ACT would set aside half the GST revenue from building activity for local councils to use on infrastructure.

"This would ensure areas of greatest need would receive more infrastructure funding, and it would also incentivise councils to approve new home-building, instead of putting development into the 'too-hard' basket."

ENDS

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