Local Government NSW (LGNSW) has broadly welcomed changes to the state’s environmental planning legislation, announced yesterday by the Premier, Chris Minns.
The Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025 includes changes that will affect local development assessment and complying development processes, community participation and regional and local planning panels, as well as improving the government’s own approach to its development functions.
LGNSW President and Forbes Shire Mayor, Phyllis Miller OAM, commended the Government on its bipartisan approach to simplifying and streamlining the planning processes.
President Miller said while the sector would be working through the detail of the legislation and providing further feedback, it was clear the proposed changes would address several key concerns long held by councils across the state.
“LGNSW supports genuine and sensible efforts to streamline planning regulation and contribute to increasing housing supply and diversity. We want to work with the government to ensure councils are supported to fulfill their assessment and broader planning responsibilities,” she said.
“Councils have been actively reviewing and improving their assessment processes with promising results, an outcome that Minister Scully recently acknowledged at a Budget Estimate hearing. But the local government sector has long held frustrations waiting for state agencies to provide advice on development applications and planning proposals, which in turn has a knock-on effect to their timeframes.
“It’s therefore pleasing to see the introduction of the Development Control Authority (DCA), which will effectively act as a clearing house for NSW government concurrences. Previously, this clunky and inconsistent process frustrated both councils and the development sector alike and led to significant delays delivering planning and housing outcomes across the state.
“We look forward to the government releasing the details of how the DCA will function, how it will report transparently on its performance, and ultimately how it will contribute to housing delivery in NSW.
“Other sensible changes promise to reduce the time and ratepayer money that councils will spend defending their planning decisions in the Land and Environment Court. We also commend the government on the inclusion of a new climate resilience object in the legislation. This is an acknowledgement of the critical need for the planning system to deliver development that responds to climate change and promote resilience to natural disasters – something that councils across the State have been doing and saying for decades.”
The Bill also proposes to enshrine the Housing Delivery Authority (the HDA) as a permanent fixture in the NSW planning system – a move not welcomed by LGNSW. The introduction of the HDA in November last year was condemned at the time by the local government sector who saw it as an attempt to circumvent councils in local decision making.
“While we acknowledge that since that time, we have received more information and data around the processes and performance of the HDA, it remains a concern for many councils feeling the impact and we will continue to provide feedback to the government,” said President Miller.
“The central concern is that major development proposals and ad hoc rezonings submitted to the HDA have no clear links to adopted plans and strategies that local communities have developed with their council.
“We urge the government and the HDA to continue to work more collaboratively with councils on all its State-led processes to ensure that growth and development is balanced and supported with the necessary infrastructure and if this bill passes we will be calling on the government to review the role of the HDA at the end of the Housing Accord period.
“And infrastructure remains the key – we need the State Government, and the Federal Government to step up on the direct funding and delivery of key infrastructure. There is simply no point in approving and building thousands and thousands of new homes if we don’t have the schools, the hospitals, the roads, the sports fields, community facilities and the sewerage and water infrastructure to support them.”
She says infrastructure delivery and the importance of completion are the two key areas that LGNSW will continue to advocate on.
“We need the State to drive the development industry to actually deliver on approvals. Councils have an important role to play in the assessment and approval processes for new housing but we have zero control over whether those houses are ever actually built,” she said.
“That’s something that the development sector needs to improve on.”
