Today's confirmation of eligibility criteria for the State Government's new Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) has generously presented developers with the freedom to exceed development standards by up to 20 per cent, giving greater opportunities for profit-driven land banking, and no mandated requirement to meaningfully provide affordable housing.
Local Government NSW (LGNSW) - the peak body for NSW councils - says the HDA will further weaken the role of community-led strategic planning while doing nothing to address real barriers to housing delivery such as land banking, skills and labour shortages and soaring costs of materials and labour.
LGNSW President Cr Darriea Turley AM said today's announcement would be viewed by developers as an early Christmas present.
"Far from the season of giving, these planning changes will leave local communities empty-handed while big developers celebrate," Cr Turley said.
"Until now, details of the HDA have been limited, but the NSW Government has confirmed today that it's basically handing the keys to planning rules over to developers, while local communities will be sidelined in decisions about what happens in their towns and suburbs.
"The new three-person HDA will be receiving EOIs from large developers and recommending these bypass councils and instead progress through state assessment and Ministerial determination."
Cr Turley said that while councils across the state supported efforts to accelerate housing delivery, they opposed the move to establish this new planning body and state-assessed planning pathway.
"This is not only because of the concern about bypassing local councils, but fundamentally, but also because it opens the planning system to more ad hoc proposals, disregarding local strategic plans and risks adding more uncertainty to the planning system," Cr Turley said.
"The NSW Government is continually shifting the planning goalposts for communities and developers. Developers now know that if they continue to delay construction on already approved sites, they only have to wait for the next rule change when they'll be able to generate even greater profits.
"Councils acknowledge the need for new and more diverse housing in well-located areas across NSW, but maintaining strategic, evidence-based planning and doing this in a collaborative way, is critical.
"Unfortunately for the NSW community, there is no requirement that developers who receive approval under this pathway must actually deliver the promised dwellings - just that they must demonstrate a capability to do so.
"There is nothing in the planning system to compel them to build. This toothless aspiration opens the planning system to more land banking by developers in search of even greater profits.
"And despite this new planning pathway allowing proposals to exceed development standards by up to 20 per cent there is no clear mandate for a meaningful contribution to affordable housing, nor that any affordable housing will remain in perpetuity.
"Rather than the vague requirement for a 'positive commitment to affordable housing', the requirements should clearly mandate what is required at the outset, to allow developers to factor this into their EOI for this pathway."
Cr Turley called for Minister Scully to consider targeted collaboration, rather than blanket policy that bypasses councils.
"When first announced last month, councils resolved to condemn this new spot-rezoning and State approval pathway, which will deliver windfall gains for developers while removing safeguards that protect communities from inappropriate overdevelopment," Cr Turley said.
"Rather than layering another blanket, statewide policy on the planning system, efforts to improve approval pathways for housing would be more effective if they focused attention and support where it is needed to overcome specific issues and to reach jointly agreed planning outcomes with councils for their communities.
"Any accelerated process must not compromise infrastructure provision, build quality, environmental considerations, public safety, liveability and other planning outcomes."
