This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE NSW Minns government has been quietly trialling a housing taskforce that it says has unlocked more than 13,000 homes in just two months by resolving delays on developments that have been stuck in government bureaucracy.
In a statement, the NSW government said the Housing Taskforce was established in September as a pilot scheme, to tackle “post consent requirements where developments are bogged down in a part of the planning system that has historically had no oversight and has become increasingly complex”.
The taskforce brings together staff from multiple government agencies and departments seconded into a Parramatta office to go line by line through projects clogged in the system while solving problems to unblock applications.
Among the unblocked projects included a housing development in the Greater Newcastle area that had been in the system for 865 days, with the taskforce working with Heritage NSW to obtain additional information required to complete the assessment. The case was closed within a week.
The NSW government said the taskforce resolved an issue for a residential building in the Sydney CBD that required approval from Sydney Metro to proceed to construction, by working with Sydney Metro to issue its approval, avoiding delays to the start of construction.
The taskforce also teamed up with Heritage NSW to work closely with an applicant for a large housing development in the Upper Hunter Region to resolve heritage issues and obtain required information. Approval was issued within one day to ensure statutory timeframes were met.
“Following the success of the taskforce, the Minns government will be continuing this while looking to the future and examining how this program can be expanded,” Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully said.
“Under the Minns government we want every stage of the planning system, pre-lodgement, assessment and post-consent to be working as effectively and efficiently as possible to deliver more homes and jobs, faster.
“Communities don’t want to hear that two government agencies can’t see eye-to-eye on a housing development. They want to see homes being built with the minimum of fuss, and with this taskforce we are one step closer to that.”
The state government’s unveiling of the taskforce comes a day after Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the new $900 million National Productivity Fund which will encourage states and territories to cut planning red tape in a bid to boost national housing supply.
Analysts continue to voice concerns about the construction industry’s capacity to handle the huge demand for homes amid a national housing crisis, with early estimates suggesting that national cabinet’s National Housing Accord target of delivering 1.2 million “well-located” homes over five years will be missed by as many as 260,000 homes.
Master Builders recently estimated that NSW would fall short of its share of 377,000 homes, including at least 3,100 affordable homes, by almost 20%.
The Property Council of Australia described the Minns government’s new taskforce as a “positive and significant step toward meeting NSW’s critical housing supply targets”.
“We’ve advocated consistently for the urgent need to address the growing backlog of residential developments stuck in NSW’s planning system and this new, permanent housing taskforce will help towards a more efficient and responsive planning system,” the Property Council’s NSW executive director Katie Stevenson said.
Stevenson said that while the housing taskforce was an essential step forward, continued action was needed to drive lasting improvement in housing delivery.
“Accelerating approvals is critical, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.
“The Minns government needs to step up the pace on other systemic barriers in the planning system, including modernising council processes, expanding digital planning tools, broadening the scope of state-significant pathways for large-scale housing projects, and enhancing agency collaboration at all stages of development.
The NSW government has also started incorporating modular homes into its housing policies, providing an avenue to faster delivery that traditional builds – another approach to bringing forward housing supply encourage by the Albanese government’s new productivity fund.
