The NSW Labor government say it has consulted with the opposition over major reforms to the state’s main law that governs development – The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act).
In response, Greens MP, Sue Higginson, has described the changes as a gift to developers while ‘communities are left behind on climate’.
Labor NSW Premier Chris Minns said in a media release, that the ‘EP&A Act is the foundation of the State’s housing, infrastructure, and energy delivery. Every decision made about new and existing development is determined by the EP&A Act, but after nearly 50 years, it has become overly complex and ill-equipped to meet modern challenges’.
He said, ‘Over time, the planning system has become a barrier preventing the delivery of much needed homes by slowing decision-making and delaying construction. The level of assessment required for simple developments is disproportionate to their impact on communities – in short, we are sweating the small stuff’.
‘As a result, not enough homes are being built. Sydney is now the second least affordable city in the world and twice as many young people are leaving NSW as are arriving. Families, young people and downsizers are being locked out of the communities they want to live in and are being forced to live far from their families, jobs, and essential services.
Premier Minns says the reforms:
- Establish the Development Coordination Authority, a single front door which will provide advice on development applications and planning proposals on behalf of all NSW Government agencies.
- Enshrine the Housing Delivery Authority in legislation, ensuring that the NSW Government has an enduring role in housing delivery across the state.
- Expand Complying Development, giving councils 10 days to approve small variations on a complying development application, or have it deemed approved.
- Introduce a new ‘Targeted Assessment Pathway’, bridging the gap between a full development assessment and Complying Development, for types of development where strategic planning and community consultation has already taken place.
He claims it will give ‘more certainty for builders and communities’ and will:
- Improve the standards and requirements on Development Applications (DA) to make sure planning assessments are proportionate to the scale and complexity of development.
- Standardise conditions to provide more certainty and speed up construction once approvals are granted.
- Amend the objects of the EP&A Act to include housing delivery, climate resilience and proportionality in planning decisions for the first time.
- Create a consistent approach to community consultations across the state by establishing a single, state-wide Community Participation Plan for NSW.
- Cut red tape and unnecessary duplication in the planning system
- Remove the regionally significant development pathway and regional planning panels that have created unnecessary duplication and delays in planning decisions.
- Update appeal options and review processes to encourage disputes to be resolved outside of the Land and Environment Court.
Expert independent advice removed
In reply, Ms Higginson says the Development Coordination Authority ‘will cut out the advice of independent expert agencies. Limiting and filtering expert independent advice is never a good plan’.
‘This new super-office will be responsible for every single development application or planning proposal – it’s a Trojan Horse that will remove the critical independent expert voices in government agencies that raise serious and legitimate concerns. This has been on the wishlist for developers for a long time’.
She said, ‘It’s telling that in their announcement, the Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Planning, didn’t mention this week’s Climate Risk Report that identified one million homes are at ‘very high risk’ and will be effectively uninsurable by 2050. Fast tracking houses is no solution as long as people are still moving onto floodplains, biodiversity is being trashed, climate resilience is merely an objective, and public and affordable housing is an after-though’.
‘We need firm and clear requirements that all new builds will have a best standard proportion of in-perpetuity affordable homes, and a minimum requirement for social housing. The government needs to make sure that 30% of new builds are affordable homes, and 10% public homes,”
‘Setting up the planning system to reward developers, so they can profit from building houses, won’t fix the housing affordability crisis which is where real housing pain is being felt – and it will do nothing for the 66 thousand households on the wait list for social housing’.
‘We support appropriate and well planned new housing, that’s not in question. Where we disagree with the Government is how the community and expert advice should be involved in decisions, and making sure that we are taking on board the existential threat of the climate and biodiversity crises,’ Ms Higginson added.
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