‘Housing taskforce’ the latest play to reduce shortages across NSW

This initiative has reportedly boosted the development of 13,000 homes by “resolving delays on developments that have been stuck in government bureaucracy.”

“Given the success of the pilot, I am pleased to say that the Housing Taskforce will become a permanent fixture of the NSW planning system,” said Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully.

“Under the former Government, five Ministers oversaw the planning system. It is no wonder that we have ended up with such a cumbersome and complex system.

“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.”

Established in September this year, the taskforce has been working covertly to relieve bogged-down developments.

Comprising the team are staff members across multiple NSW government departments, working cooperatively out of an office in Parramatta.

According to a statement from NSW government, the taskforce is focused on “streamlining and coordinating the assessment of housing development applications.”

This includes:

• Unblocking the approval for a housing development in the Greater Newcastle area that had been in the system for 865 days. The taskforce worked with Heritage NSW to obtain the additional information required to complete the assessment. The case was closed within a week.
• Resolving an issue for a residential building in the Sydney CBD that required approval from Sydney Metro to proceed to construction. The taskforce was able to work with Sydney Metro to issue its approval avoiding delays to the start of construction.
• Issued an approval within one day to ensure statutory time frames were met for a large housing development in the Upper Hunter Region. The taskforce and Heritage NSW worked closely with the applicant to resolve Heritage issues and get the information that was needed.

Scully said: “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.

“This Taskforce is about having representatives from state agencies, vital to planning approvals, under one roof to make it easier to consider all of the issues for a particular site in a coordinated way.”

NSW government is reportedly looking to expand the taskforce, vowing to give “young people, families and workers have somewhere to live.”

Jack Campbell is the editor of Broker Daily. After graduating from the University of Wollongong in 2022, Jack began his journalistic career working on Broker Daily’s sister brand, HR Leader. In August 2023 he was made the news editor and worked alongside some talented journalists writing articles and recording podcasts.

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