Regional Cities Victoria (RCV), which includes the City of Greater Bendigo among its members, is calling on the Federal Government to turn its one-off Housing Support Program into an annual $1.5B investment in essential services and infrastructure.
Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf, who is Deputy Chair of RCV, and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Cooney travelled with a RCV delegation to Canberra yesterday to advocate for the needs of regional Victoria ahead of the Federal election.
Cr Metcalf said regional councils want to see their cities grow and create more opportunities for their communities, but Federal policy and funding support was essential.
"At the moment, a lack of utilities - water mains, sewerage plants, local roads upgrades - stand in the way of unlocking land supply and building more, much-needed homes in regional Victoria," she said.
"The Housing Support Program addresses many of the challenges Local Government faces to improve planning capacity and ensure there is the infrastructure and amenities needed to unlock new housing. However, to allow councils to plan for the future, RCV is advocating for the program to be permanent.
"A confidence in housing and infrastructure supply can also help address challenging workforce shortages. Statewide, Local Government is experiencing a shortage of planners, building surveyors and engineering staff, roles that coincidentally are critical to supporting housing delivery.
"RCV also wants regional cities to receive $1B annually through the federal Growing Regions Program and Regional Precincts and Partnership Program. We believe regional areas need more favourable funding ratios, with a guaranteed 25% of the state's allocation to be invested in regional Victoria.
"Road safety was also a key priority, while so too was the continual push to be allowed to 'build back better' following a natural disaster. Victorian and Commonwealth governments need to work together to include infrastructure betterment provisions within Category B and Category C of the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
"To be able to 'build back better' after natural disasters is a critical investment in long-term sustainability but something Local Government cannot fund by itself.
"Our discussions focused on key investments that need to be made available to regional Victorian communities now. Such funding guarantees mean we can strategically plan for and manage a future pipeline of infrastructure projects, and ensure we are better prepared to navigate challenges that come along the way."
