Victorian council ends Retirement Villages Development Grant program for 13 sites

Casey Council, in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs, has announced it is to stop the Retirement Villages Development Grant program, which provided 13 operators in the municipality with more than $200,000 in funding in the 2021-22 financial year.

In a council meeting on Tuesday 16 August, council administrators voted unanimously to redirect funds to a broader grants program after a final distribution in the 2022-23 financial year.

A report to council said the grant program will be discontinued as it “does not align with current Council Grants Policy or processes that reflect best practice”.

“It is a closed program that is only available to one demographic, whereas all other grant programs are intended to reach a broad cross section of the municipality,” the report said.

The City of Casey has been providing annual funding to retirement villages since 2010/11, when a group of retirement village residents submitted a proposal for funding to offset rates for residents in retirement villages and to support village resident committees in their contribution to village life.

Only two villages were found to be using the funding to reduce village service fees, with a further two using the grant directly to offset council rates for residents, saving individual residents about $100 per year on council rates.

Thirteen retirement villages, including the Royal Freemasons Berwick Brae (pictured), in the City of Casey are currently sharing in $204,335, with funding allocation ranging from $3000 to over $26,000, based on a $1.94 per week per unit basis.