Urban Taskforce CEO, Tom Forrest, today said that the NSW Government’s secret plan to introduce a new “Regional Infrastructure Charge” (RIC) on all new homes and sub-divisions must be allocated to funding new infrastructure and not used to pump up the budget bottom line.
This plan was originally introduced into the NSW Parliament as part of the Budget announcement in 2021 when the Premier was the Treasurer. This new Regional Infrastructure Charge (RIC) was supposed to develop a fund for the purpose of funding infrastructure to support housing supply. This legislation was referred to an upper house committee and has not been progressed by the Government.
The Urban Taskforce appeared before the NSW Upper House Committee in July 2021 and raised significant concerns regarding the lack of detail or governance to ensure that funds raised were extra funds and would be dedicated exclusively to support additional housing supply, over and above that that was already planned.
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