Friday, November 15, 2024

Victorian council votes to “forward fund” new housing

Victoria’s Wellington Shire Council has adopted a policy which will help unlock much-needed residential land in the main urban centres of the municipality by “forward funding” required infrastructure.

In a statement, Council said the policy will allow Council to consider the funding of key development infrastructure up front, such as drainage retention basins and road intersection upgrades. Developers would later return costs of the upgrades to Council as land development progresses, it said.

Wellington Shire Council Mayor, Ian Bye said that by “forward funding” key infrastructure, Council would make it easier to develop land for housing and employment growth.

“Like many parts of Gippsland, Wellington Shire is experiencing a shortage in housing and rentals,” Mayor Bye said.

“When a developer is considering opening up land for a housing development, there is key infrastructure that often needs to be in place for this to occur – infrastructure like drainage basins and upgrades to existing road intersections to access the new housing.

“By having a consistent policy to assess whether Council can fund some of this key infrastructure up front, it will go a long way towards making it easier for developers to unlock some of that much-needed land for housing.

“We would recoup the costs of any infrastructure upgrades from the developers as their developments progress.”

The Funding and Procurement of Public Infrastructure Works Policy sets out criteria that Council will evaluate on a ‘case-by-case’ basis when considering forward funding of infrastructure.

Implementation of the policy will depend on Council securing money for a forward funding program, the Mayor said.

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