The New South Wales government’s new independent housing authority has fast-tracked more than 6,000 homes following its first meeting earlier this month.
Since its establishment in mid-January, the Housing Delivery Authority – an independent body that bypasses councils to speed up the approval process for larger-scale developments – has received 160 expressions of interest, 28 of which were examined at the first meeting on 7 February.
Of those, 11 proposals have been declared state significant projects by the planning department, creating capacity for 6,400 homes.
“This new authority that is fast-tracking the approval of new homes is a major but necessary change to cut through the red tape and delays that have haunted the NSW planning system for well over a decade,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said.
“These changes that we have implemented are making it easier and faster to increase housing supply near existing infrastructure, critical to delivering thousands of much-needed homes for young people, families and workers,” he added.
Sitting within the planning department, the HDA is headed by three public servants: secretary of the Department of Planning Kiersten Fishburn, secretary of the Premier’s Department Simon Draper, and Infrastructure NSW CEO Tom Gellibrand.
When launched, the authority drew criticism from the peak body representing local government in NSW for sidelining councils and depriving the community of a voice.
In a recent statement, LGNSW said – while councils did not support the function of the HDA – local government will nevertheless need to play a role in ensuring local amenity is protected and vital infrastructure is delivered.
“We now encourage the government to work with councils and developers to ensure these applications progress through a fulsome state significant development assessment process, with consideration of necessary infrastructure contributions, and then those proposed dwellings actually get built within the proposed timeline featured as part of the EOI process,” LGNSW president Phyllis Miller said.
Although critical of the process, Miller – also Mayor of Forbes Shire – did thank Minister for Planning Paul Scully for honouring the local government sector’s call for transparency. “The fact that the HDA has published all the EOIs – including the unsuccessful ones – with detailed information about their final decisions is a welcome move,” she said. “Communities have a right to know what developers are proposing … and we take it as a sign of goodwill from the government that they are willing to work openly and in collaboration with the local government sector.”
Due to the number of EOIs received, the HDA will now meet fortnightly rather than monthly.
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