‘Single front door’: The biggest overhaul of NSW planning laws in 50 years revealed

The NSW Labor government will embark on the biggest rewrite of the state’s planning laws in nearly five decades after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations to shore up support from the Coalition.

Under the overhaul of the laws that shape delivery of housing and infrastructure, the Minns government will enshrine in legislation the three-person Housing Delivery Authority, which was established in January with the power to send major residential development proposals on a faster route to approval that bypasses local councils.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, pictured with Planning Minister Paul Scully.Credit: Steven Siewert

Labor said on Wednesday the changes were “designed to make the planning system quicker and simpler to navigate, so that more homes and jobs can be delivered across the state”, as it faces an uphill battle to meet its target to deliver 377,000 new homes demanded by the federal government under the National Housing Accord.

Premier Chris Minns said the state’s planning system had become “a bottleneck in the state’s ability to build more homes – hurting housing supply, increasing costs and reducing community confidence”.

“For too long, NSW has been hamstrung by a planning system that delays good projects and makes it harder to build the homes our communities desperately need.

“This bill is about clearing the path for the right development in the right places, with the right outcomes for the community.”

The government will introduce a new “targeted assessment pathway”, which it says will bridge “the gap between a full development assessment and complying development, for types of development where strategic planning and community consultation has already taken place”.

Councils will have 10 days to approve small variations on a so-called “complying development” application, which enables certain projects to gain planning approval without going through a more extensive development application process, or have it deemed approved.

There will also be changes to standards and requirements for development applications, and changes to appeal options and review processes to encourage disputes to be resolved outside the Land and Environment Court.

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A new “development coordination authority” will be established to provide advice on development applications and planning proposals on behalf of all government agencies.

Minns said the authority would provide a “single front door” for local councils and builders. Instead of requiring approvals to be collected from a number of government agencies.

“It’ll be up to us to coordinate what our government is saying about the outcomes, not up to the developer to work out who’s saying what,” said Minns.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey declared the reforms would transform NSW from the worst planning system in Australia to the nation’s best.

Planning Minister Paul Scully and Liberal counterpart Scott Farlow have been meeting since the premier signalled he was open to bipartisan reform of the 46-year-old, 327-page legislation in January.

More to come

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