19 December 2019
Have your say on the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill

The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is calling for submissions on the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill.

Objective of the Bill
This bill would establish a new funding and financing model to support the provision of infrastructure for housing and urban development. The new model intends to address the challenges local authorities face in relation to financing housing-related infrastructure and supply serviced urban land.

The funding and financing model

Special purpose vehicle (SPV)
The bill enables SPVs, which are companies, limited partnerships, Crown entities, or other persons to:

• be responsible for both financing and construction of the infrastructure assets
• service the finance raised to cover the costs of the infrastructure via the levy.

Once constructed, the infrastructure would vest in the relevant local authority or public body. The bill also includes a range of disclosure and reporting obligations that an SPV must comply with.

The levy
The bill establishes a multi-year levy, which is paid by beneficiaries of infrastructure projects to an SPV. The levy would be applied to a geographic area of land, which will be identified within each levy order. The levies would be paid by the person who is liable to pay the rates on a property and be collected by the territorial authority that is the responsible levy authority for the infrastructure.

Statutory powers
The bill enables SPVs to seek certain statutory powers, through the Resource Management Act to allow them to effectively and efficiently construct infrastructure. These powers will provide an SPV with the ability to seek, hold, or receive a designation or to compulsorily acquire land through existing regimes. Under the bill, the new model would still work with complementary regulatory regimes, such as resource and building consenting processes.

Recommender
The bill provides for a recommender, whose role is to provide independent advice to the Minister for Urban Development on a levy proposal and whether to recommend the use of a levy. The bill intends for the recommender to safeguard the interests of levypayers through the provision of that advice.

Monitor
The bill also establishes a monitor. The monitor’s role would be to ensure that SPVs comply with the terms of the empowering Act and levy orders. The bill intends for the monitor to be a safeguard for the Crown and levypayers once a levy order has been made.

The monitor would be able to inquire into an SPVs operations and give statutory directions to SPVs when they are in breach of these obligations. If these directions are not followed, the monitor would be able to recommend that the Crown step in to manage the SPV until any significant problems are resolved.

The monitor also has a role in considering and determining any objection by a person subject to the levy as to the accuracy of the levy assessed to that person.

Local authority investment
The bill would also set up a local authority endorsement mechanism to safeguard the legitimate interests of the local authority in which the assets will vest in. A proposal for a levy must receive an asset endorsement and a levy endorsement before the Minister recommends it to the Governor-General.

Tell the Transport and Infrastructure Committee what you think
Make a submission on the bill by midnight on 5 March 2020.
For more details about the bill:
• Read the full content of the bill
• Get more details about the bill
• What’s been said in Parliament about the bill?
• Follow the committee’s Facebook page for updates

ENDS

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