The New South Wales Government has confirmed the approval of $17 billion worth of infrastructure, including a planetarium, aged care facilities and thousands of new homes.
The infrastructure funding approval has paved the way for about 27,000 new homes to be built and 52,000 jobs across New South Wales (NSW).
The Property Council of Australia has endorsed the role of the independent planning panels in the approval process, which were part of reforms to reduce assessment times.
NSW Property Council Executive Director Luke Achterstraat said planning and property were the key to economic recovery in 2020, and a strong pipeline of activity would be critical to ensure this is emulated in 2021-22.
“We need expedited planning approvals to underpin economic recovery off the back of this current lockdown,” Mr Achterstraat said.
Mr Achterstraat said local planning panels are an independent, fair and transparent approach that ensure decisions get made on their merits and that experts make local planning decisions.
“Local planning panels are a critical part of the planning process and need to be genuinely independent to help make good planning decisions for local communities,” he said.
“They are also a corruption prevention measure endorsed by former Deputy Police Commissioner, Nick Kaldas, as part of his review of the planning system.”
Mr Achterstraat said he encouraged the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes to continue to look at ways the NSW planning system could be improved through reform.
“In May the NSW Productivity Commission released his White Paper with 60 recommendations for increased productivity in the state, with housing, infrastructure and planning reform being the key to unlocking productivity across the state,” Mr Achterstraat said.
“It is more important than ever that these recommendations are front of mind for economic recovery driven by planning reform and housing delivery.
“The success of the planning panels in delivering approximately 27,000 new homes and 52,000 jobs across the state is a good start, but not anywhere near the 40,000 homes a year we need.
“Homes and jobs should be the immediate priority of this government, two things we’ve never valued more than during a lockdown.”
Planning panels are made up of independent experts in fields including planning, architecture, heritage, environment, urban design, economics, traffic and transport, law and government, and public administration.
Panels also include representatives from local communities to ensure issues and considerations important in those places are captured in the panel’s deliberations.
Panels help to safeguard against corruption and provide the community with more certainty of panning decisions.
Mr Stokes explained the reforms assisted the independent planning panels in clearing their backlogs without compromising rigorous assessment processes.
“Collectively, Sydney, regional, and local planning panels approved 1497 development applications during the 2020-21 financial year – worth $17 billion to the NSW economy,” Mr Stokes said.
“Resolving uncertainty in the planning system has been an important focus for the government, and over the past 12 months regional planning panels and local councils worked together to clear the decks of development applications that had been stuck in the system for too long.”
“These fantastic results are a testament to the fact we’ve kept the planning system moving to provide new homes, jobs and great public spaces, despite the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
