Managing the Private Financing of Urban Infrastructure

Abstract

This article explores the implications of private financing for the functioning of urban infrastructure, with a particular emphasis on Australian cities. The article charts the directions of infrastructure financing in Australia from the 1980s onwards, being the period when privatisation and financialisation of utilities and state-owned enterprises in Australia gathers momentum. It then explains how infrastructure emerged globally as an asset class with exposition of how the particular characteristics of urban infrastructure have proven to be attractive to private capital interests. A concluding section points to directions in infrastructure financing that merit close attention from an urban planning perspective.

本文主要以澳大利亚城市为例，探讨私营部门对城市基础设施建设的投资。文章梳理了1980 年代以来澳大利亚基础设施融资的不同方向。这一时期也正是澳大利亚公共公共事业和国有企业私有化和金融化的开端。文章指出，基础设施在全球已成为一个资产类别，城市基础设施更是吸引了私人资本。最后，文章指出应从城市规划的角度入手，深入研究基础设施融资方向。

Keywords:

• Infrastructure
• privatisation
• financialisation
• urban planning
• urban flows

Acknowledgements

The research on which this article is based is funded by ARC Discovery Grant DP130104319 titled “Tracing modes of infrastructure financing and their effects on cities” for which the author expresses gratitude. The author is thankful too for the very helpful comments of two reviewers and for the guidance of the editors.

Notes

1. Details about the broader project can be accessed here http://www.uws.edu.au/urban_research_centre/projects/tracing_modes_of_infrastructure_financing_and_their_effects_on_cities2.

2. It can be argued that commonplace fiscal distress in advanced nations is a consequence of the erosion of such legitimacy so that the option of financing public infrastructure through expanded taxation revenues seems to have disappeared as a politically-tolerated option.