19 November 2024

Delegates at the Local Government NSW Annual Conference have condemned a move by the State Government to establish a new planning body to bypass local government on large housing developments.

The unanimous vote was one of the first items of business at the conference, which is taking place in Tamworth this week.

On Friday, Premier Chris Minns announced a three-person planning authority will be given responsibility for housing developments over $60 million in the Sydney region and over $30 million in rural and regional areas.

The Premier said the reform will come into effect in early 2025 following a proposed “short and sharp consultation” with stakeholders.

“The housing crisis is multifaceted and requires all three spheres of government working together,” said LGNSW President, Darriea Turley AM.

“The local government sector is already doing our part and delegates to our conference are keen to work with State Government for further reform. What we don’t need though is for councils and communities to be pushed aside and excluded from the process in a move that will only lead to inappropriate overdevelopment and increased profits for developers.

“The announcement adds more uncertainty to the planning system and will further delay actual construction of housing on already approved sites. Why would developers build under the many approvals that already exist, when the NSW Government is effectively encouraging them to lodge new applications that exceed local planning controls, and where they can make windfall profits from spot rezoning?”

“We call on the Minns government to abandon plans for this undemocratic body and to work with us and with our communities,” she said.

The motion passed at the LGNSW Annual Conference is as follows:

Motion #4. Addressing the housing crisis – Greater collaboration on planning reforms 
That Local Government NSW and councils across the state:

Reaffirm their support for actions to address the housing crisis and acknowledge the need for new and more diverse housing in well-located areas across NSW. 

1. Call on the NSW Government to commit to a more collaborative approach in codesigning and implementing planning reforms with councils to ensure:
   
   
   1. Reforms are responsive to different planning contexts and deliver high quality, liveable and sustainable housing, neighbourhoods and communities. 
      
      
   2. Plans and provisions are made for the funding and timely delivery of both state and local infrastructure needed to support increased density. 
      
      
   3. Changes aimed at increasing development density uplift include the provision of affordable housing in-perpetuity. 
      
      
   4. There is robust, transparent and regular monitoring by the NSW Government of the outcomes of planning reforms with a holistic approach to the roles of all players in the planning and development process. 
      
      
2. Call on the NSW Government to investigate the number of vacant dwellings in NSW and how these can be quickly made available for housing.
   
   
3. Condemn the NSW Government’s 15 November 2024 announcement that it will bypass councils and communities with a new spot-rezoning and state approval pathway, which will deliver windfall gains for developers while removing safeguards that protect communities from inappropriate overdevelopment.

Source: Local Government News, 19 November 2024

Further Reading:

NSW Government to launch new Housing Delivery Authority to boost housing supply

Published: 15 November 2024

Released by: The Premier, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces

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The Minns Labor Government is today announcing the establishment of a new state-led approval pathway for major residential housing projects, as well as a process for rezonings – neither having to be approved by councils, cutting approval times and speeding up the delivery of new homes.

The Housing Delivery Authority

This reform will come into effect in early 2025 following a short and sharp consultation with stakeholders.

This will be available for new housing developments above an estimated development cost of $60 million (on average 100 or more homes) in Greater Sydney and a cost of approximately $30 million (on average 40 or more homes) in regional NSW.

This pathway will be overseen by the new Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) and will be established within the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI).

The HDA will include the Secretary of the Premier’s Department Simon Draper, the Secretary of the Department of Planning Kiersten Fishburn and the Chief Executive Officer of Infrastructure NSW, Tom Gellibrand.

The Minister for Planning and Public Spaces remains the consent authority for projects through this pathway.

Housing is the biggest single cost of living pressure people are dealing with right now.

And while we have already pushed through the biggest housing reforms in a generation there is still a disconnect between the state’s need to support new housing, and our ability to make it happen through the current planning system.

Proposals in this pathway will not be required to be considered by councils for development and will benefit from an approval timeline that is potentially reduced by years.

Proposals will also be selected through an expression of interest (EOI) process with established criteria. They will be assessed on merit with a flexible approach to planning controls, including any incremental zoning changes required to pursue a development application.

Rezoning process

As part of this reform the Minns Labor Government is also introducing a new pathway that will allow selected projects which would deliver significant housing uplift, but require more significant rezonings, to go through a DPHI led fast track rezoning pathway that does not require a council process.

These projects will also be selected through an EOI process run by the HDA, where proponents will be able to submit rezoning proposals for consideration.

The proposals will be considered against a set of criteria which the HDA will now consult stakeholders on, that are consistent with the state’s housing priorities.

This approach will have the benefit of allowing new projects to go through rezoning and development assessment at the same time.

These reforms will reduce the number of large complex development applications councils are required to assess each year, freeing up resources for councils to assess less complex development applications before them.

These measures build on a series of transformative reforms to simplify the planning system and unlock housing supply after a decade of inaction by the former government, including:

• The largest ever rezoning in NSW history.
• Housing targets for councils to rebalance housing across Greater Sydney.
• $450 million to build new apartments for essential workers including nurses, paramedics, teachers, allied health care workers, police officers and fire fighters.
• A council league table to measure housing delivery.
• The largest ever investment in the state’s history with $5.1 billion dedicated to delivering social and affordable housing.
• A land audit of vacant government owned land that will unlock 30,000 homes including 8,400 public homes built by the government.
  
  

Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns:

“These are huge reforms that we are not proposing lightly, however the scale of the problem requires this significant change.

“For over a decade in NSW, governments have made it harder to build the homes we need, not easier – but this cannot continue if we want to be a city that young people can afford to live in.

“NSW needs significant new housing supply near existing infrastructure but at the same time too many well-located areas in Sydney have put too many barriers up for too long.”

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said:

“The Minns Government is doing everything in its power to tackle the housing crisis and encourage developers to build and boost housing supply and overall affordability.

“These latest reforms mean the State is taking control of major housing projects so that they have the attention they deserve and get through the assessment process much faster.

“The former government increased red tape so that getting approval to build homes has become incredibly hard.

“The NSW Government will do whatever it takes to build a better future for NSW so young people, families and workers have somewhere to live.”



References:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/the-three-people-who-will-bypass-councils-to-speed-up-housing-supply-20241115-p5kqys.html