Homefullness - Jan 19 2025 ep08 - How councils can get more money to create new housing & reduce rates

If you're frustrated by the amount of rates that you pay and the increasing rates that many councils are doing, you are not alone. Many people complain, “councils, all they care about is money.” And yet, they have increasing expenses & responsibilities to pay for with less income--a gap that's been widening over decades. The amount of income that they're able to generate through rates is not covering all the things they're responsible for. So, what is the solution? Well, we've got Nick Clark, with the NZ Initiative, on to explain to us how the new policy he's proposing called Revenue Share for Housing could work. He says it could clear most council debt and create new income streams for local councils. The benefit is that there'll be more money to be able to support new housing construction and the infrastructure needed for that and rates hopefully won't continue to increase. So how does this work? Well, we're going to explain about it in this episode, but the basics are that: A portion of the GST that's collected by central government from local councils on new builds would be given back to the councils. This is really a game changer, so listen in to hear about this policy that could increase the amount of income your counsel is able to generate to create new housing in your area and that might even stabilize the rates.