SEYMOUR RESEARCH

Seymour Shire changed over to rating site values in 1982, instead of penalising owners prior to this who built or made improvements upon their properties. Seymour shire lies approximatly 100 kilometres noth of Melbourne.

The results of the change to the rates base have been examined for the three years prior and after this change

Seymour shire building permits

The highlights of the building permits issued in the three years experience of Seymour Shire under Site Value rating, as compared with the previous three years experience under rating of owners' improvements, are as follows:

These figures for Seymour confirm experience elsewhere that property owners respond almost immediately by constructing new, more and better quality buildings of all types, when they know that they will not attract higher taxes through the rating system for doing so.

Those councils which continue to tax improvements are throttling down the scale of development of whatever resources their districts possess and accentuating the drift to the city.

Un-taxing improvements introduces a new life process which will better all sections of the local community wherever it is tried.