The NSW Government has been clear that addressing the housing crisis is a shared responsibility, and all levels of government must do their part.
To ramp up housing supply across the state, the NSW Government has introduced planning reforms to build more homes and build better communities.
As councils assess approximately 85% of all residential development applications, a new Statement of Expectations and league tables was introduced as their performance is critical to confronting the housing crisis.
In addition, State agencies concurrence and referral timeframes will be published.
Regionally Significant Development Applications referral times to planning panels will be published from August, State Significant Development assessment timeframes for infill affordable housing will be published from September 2024 and TOD accelerated precinct assessment timeframes in 2025.
This data will monitor the State Government’s performance so that it also is held accountable.
To provide further transparency around the Government’s expectations, the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully has released a new Statement of Expectations Order that establishes timeframes for councils on development assessment, planning proposals and strategic planning.
“We are committed to building a better NSW with more homes so young people, families and workers have somewhere to live. The Government has announced a suite of housing reforms over the past 12 months aimed at delivering more homes faster,” Scully says.
“We are now introducing new performance standards and monitoring because if we don’t measure performance then we can’t monitor it properly.
"Councils approve the vast majority of residential development in our State, so tracking their performance is critical if we together want to meet our housing targets. But we will also track the performance of the State government as well to hold ourselves to account.”
According to Scully, the updated Statement of Expectations, alongside improved monitoring, reporting, support and compliance initiatives is set to help councils and the State to speed up development assessments and improve transparency and accountability in the planning process.
“The NSW Government will work collaboratively with councils and support them to meet assessment expectations,” he says.
“There is $200 million in financial incentives available to councils to help achieve housing targets and improve planning performance including development application timeframes. The funding will help deliver local infrastructure including roads, open spaces and community facilities for growing communities.”
The council league table and Statement of Expectations Order are part of the NSW Government’s Faster Assessments program. This includes $200 million in financial incentives for councils that meet the new expectations for development applications, planning proposals and strategic planning.
These financial incentives will go towards grants for councils to fund more green space such as parks, sporting facilities and smaller pocket parks, plus maintenance of local streets and footpaths which councils maintain.
If a council consistently underperforms over time, the Minister for Local Government has the authority to issue a Performance Improvement Order. A Performance Improvement Order outlines the actions that the Minister requires to be taken to improve the performance of the council.
These measures have been established to speed up the delivery of homes for people in every stage of life, whether it be a young person, a family or a downsizer.
"Local government has a critical role to play in approving housing across NSW,” Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig says.
“The State Government is instituting a range of measures to support councils but where there is continuing underperformance despite that support, I will step in.
“As Minister for Local Government I have the authority to issue Performance Improvements Orders to councils to rectify issues of ongoing underperformance.
“The NSW Government is serious about addressing the housing crisis and while this is a last resort, we will explore every avenue available to us in order to build more homes.”
