In today\u2019s Budget Reply the NSW Opposition Leader outlined practical housing policies that would make a real difference to tackling in NSW the Australia-wide housing crisis.
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Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the Minns Labor Government\u2019s projected $14 billion tax revenue windfall should have been used to deal with the housing crisis in a meaningful way.
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\u201cChris Minns\u2019 Budget has had $14 billion tax revenue windfall, but he\u2019s chosen to put these funds towards union wage deals that he\u2019d promised would cost nothing, missing a golden opportunity to help deliver the housing that NSW needs,\u201d Mr Speakman said.
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\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have squandered this opportunity \u2013 we would have delivered policies with vision for a better future for this state. That\u2019s why my Budget Reply has outlined policies to tackle supply, improve housing affordability and reduce rental stress.\u201d
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\u201cFirst home buyers deserve choice and that\u2019s exactly what the Liberals and Nationals would have provided. We would have kept and sought to expand the First Home Buyer Choice scheme and kept the Government\u2019s reduced threshold and rates of stamp duty – providing our next generation with choice in how they enter the housing market and giving them the best possible chance of realising the Australian dream.\u201d
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\u201cThe Minns Government has told communities to \u2019get out of the way\u2019, while we would have sought to engage with local councils and communities to review housing targets and establish a Community Benefit Fund of $2 billion or more to incentivise and reward local communities which achieve their targets.\u201d
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\u201cWe also believe in supporting opportunities for one generation to help another \u2013 and would have sought to help empty nesters downsize and to free up appropriate housing supply for younger families, with a stamp-duty exemption for older downsizers,\u201d Mr Speakman said.
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Shadow Minister for Planning and Housing, Scott Farlow, said the Budget failed to deliver measures to support increased supply and address affordability.
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\u201cUnder the National Housing Accord the NSW Government has signed up to deliver 314,000 homes and the Premier has recently committed to an increased target of 378,000 homes to be delivered by 2029,\u201d Mr Farlow said.\u00a0
\u201cLocal communities and councils are going to be essential to achieving those targets and they should see the benefit. The Commonwealth Government has put $3 billion on the table and that needs to be directed to local communities.\u201d
\u201cOur Community Benefit Fund would be available to local councils that met their targets, to fund the improvement of public open spaces through new and improved walking and cycle paths, parks, trails, boardwalks, lookouts, foreshores, riverbanks, play spaces, civic plazas, and outdoor event spaces. The fund could also be used to upgrade local sporting facilities and community recreational facilities.\u201d
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\u201cThere are nearly a million people in NSW over the age of 55 who are occupying a home of three bedrooms or more either alone or as empty nesters.\u201d
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\u201cBy introducing a stamp duty exemption for older buyers, with appropriate thresholds, we have an opportunity to encourage seniors to downsize to a smaller property and help them in finding more suitable accommodation.\u201d
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\u201cThis could be a measure to stimulate additional supply instantly, reducing housing affordability pressures by making more suitable homes available to meet the needs of younger families.\u201d
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\u201cThe Government\u2019s Budget was supposed to deliver more housing, but instead it delivered higher taxes and the mirage of more housing by 2040,\u201d Mr Farlow said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In today\u2019s Budget Reply the NSW Opposition Leader outlined practical housing policies that would make a real difference to tackling in NSW the Australia-wide housing crisis.\u00a0Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the Minns Labor Government\u2019s projected $14 billion tax revenue windfall should have been used to deal with the housing crisis in a meaningful way.\u00a0\u201cChris Minns\u2019 … Continue reading “Housing policies with vision”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23023,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23022\/revisions\/23023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}