The property industry fears a state government program credited with helping drive Newcastle's inner-city development boom will be allowed to expire in two years.
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Property Council regional chair Neil Petherbridge said he was concerned the government's Hunter Central Coast Development Corporation, which administers the Newcastle Mines Grouting Fund, had no plans to ask the state to extend the fund beyond 2022.
"Certainly the feedback we got from our last meeting was that it's not on their agenda at all," Mr Petherbridge said.
"My guess is that the people who are now on the grouting fund steering committee ... none of them have been involved with it before, and I don't think they understand the impact it makes on development.
"There's a whole business case to be put back to government as to why it should care, which someone's going to have to prepare, and at the moment HCCDC say they're not doing it."
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The $17 million fund acts as an insurance policy for developers and investors embarking on projects which require an unknown quantity of concrete grouting pumped into old mine workings.
Developers pay for grouting up to a capped cost of several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the site size and location, and the fund covers the rest.
The program began as a pilot in 2015 using money from the Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund.
Planning Minister Rob Stokes, who announced the scheme five years ago, told the Newcastle Herald during a visit to the city last week that the government would examine whether to extend the program.
"The money does come to an end at the end of 2022. That gives us time to figure out what to do next," he said.
"But obviously a key constraint for Newcastle is to make sure sites are developable.
"We wouldn't have been able to do anything without that funding, so when the time comes obviously we'll have a good look at whether we need to tip some more money in."
When asked if HCCDC planned to push for the fund to continue beyond 2022, a corporation spokesperson said: "The Newcastle Mines Grouting Fund is a $17 million NSW Government fund administered by HCCDC.
"In September 2018, Government announced that the Fund would be ongoing, with a review intended at the end of 2022."
Mr Petherbridge estimated that developers had drawn only about $1.5 million from the fund.
"Most developers are not using it. Most of the larger sites are not getting near it. The only ones drawing money out of it are the smaller ones," he said.
"It's been a pretty cheap bit of insurance money to get a whole lot of development. Fundamentally, the redevelopment of the city would not have happened without it.
"It's not a stimulus thing, because as soon as it goes everything will stop.
"It was there to fix a market failure, which was when you go to the bank to get finance, if you can't get a figure on what the grouting's going to cost, they're not going to lend you any money."
Mr Petherbridge said the government, which receives billions in coal royalties from the Hunter, should continue to fund a scheme which helped the region overcome the legacy of mining.
Lake Macquarie City Council property and business development manager David Antcliff said the "peanuts" fund had created investment and jobs.
"We're quite keen to have it extended into Lake Macquarie, specifically around Charlestown, because it's been really successful since its implementation in removing some of that mine risk," Mr Antcliff said.
"And it's done it with virtually no money needing to be actually expended, but it's leveraged millions and millions in development and jobs and the opportunity for people to invest in this region rather than investing somewhere else."
Developer Hilton Grugeon said the state had a responsibility to help "fix what taking that coal out of the ground has done to the city".
"They are getting huge funding in royalties. The amount they put back in [to the grouting fund] compared with what they collect is miniscule," he said.
He said removing the fund would reintroduce uncertainty into the industry.
"If they want to put a lot of uncertainty into future development, that's the way to do it," he said.
"Without it, a lot of the progress that we've seen in Newcastle, in Hunter Street, wouldn't have happened.
"Things would still happen, but at a far diminished rate, because once you start grouting an old mine tunnel under Newcastle, there is no way of knowing how much grout has to go down that hole."
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