NorthSide Living:
Shifting the very foundation of housing, jobs and infrastructure legislation in NSW, the Planning System Reforms Bill 2025 stage for a ‘faster, fairer planning system,’ says Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully. Ushering in a new, modern era of planning, it dismantles bottlenecks that have long held up housing delivery – surely a win for communities, councils and developers alike. But many don’t agree, arguing that developer-led planning sets a dangerous precedent, citing a dearth of infrastructure to support such plans as well as vast cost to natural surroundings.
The largest housing and planning reform agenda in state history, the new law merges several housing policies which have been designed to speed up passage of development applications. It includes the transport oriented development program and low and mid-rise housing policy into one super- charged runway for creating homes and jobs. “These reforms will help us build more homes faster, in the right places,” says NSW Premier Chris Minns, adding that the state has long been held back by a ‘slow, complex and out of step’ system.
A new Development Coordination Authority – a single ‘front door’ linking major projects across NSW government agencies – will slash ‘unnecessary’ red tape, while ‘complying development’ will be expanded to hustle approvals for ‘low-impact’ builds, shortening consultations for state significant developments (SSD) from 28 to 14 days. A targeted assessment pathway will boost developments already subject to consultation and regional planning panels will be ditched, while more than 100 consultation plans will merge into a single, state-wide community participation plan.
But Independent Pittwater MP Jacqui Scruby – one of only four MPs to oppose the bill in the Legislative Assembly – tells PL that the reforms ‘flip our planning system on its head – from local planning to developer-led state-based planning.’ “They silence communities, weaken council planning controls and boost profit-driven development, effectively enabling development driven by profit, not community housing need,” says the MP. Ms Scruby successfully moved an amendment to protect native habitat when the Bill was passing through the Legislative Assembly, and has since held a community planning forum and launched a petition against the reforms.
“Developers will be able to side-step Northern Beaches Council and the strategic work that has been done in consultation with the community, especially in low and mid- rise areas and for large SSDs,” Ms Scruby says. “There will be more spot rezonings, more SSDs and more mechanisms to give developers a shortcut around local controls,” she adds.
At the law’s heart is a push for an enduring, state-wide focus on housing delivery. And isn’t that what we need? NSW has been lagging in terms of hitting housing targets and in 2024, sat last-in-line for construction completions on the east coast, despite having the largest population, largest expected population increase and highest rents and median house prices. Property Council of Australia data shows that new housing starts in NSW fell from 47,567 in 2023 – the lowest in over 10 years – to just 45,552 last year, and there are currently 67,721 households on the waiting list in NSW for social housing, says the Department of Communities and Justice, a leap from last year’s 58,000.
Catherine Lewis