UDIA congratulates the NSW Government on taking the important step to establish an Agency League Table to shine a light on the performance of government agencies and improve the time it takes for development approvals.
“This is a significant advocacy win by UDIA NSW after calling for greater transparency around the performance NSW Government agencies in the planning system,” said Stuart Ayres, CEO, UDIA NSW.
UDIA has been calling for this type of dashboard for more than 18 months, because for too long we’ve seen too many projects stall while waiting for these approvals. Many UDIA members are reporting the average time to move from approval to construction can be anywhere from 6-8 months while they negotiate approvals with water, power, sewer and roads.
UDIA has worked closely with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure on system improvements that could streamline the Concurrences, Integrated development approvals and Referrals (CIRs) processes, which led to the establishment of the Housing Taskforce in August last year.
The Government should also ensure the dashboard includes the total time it takes to move from approval to the issuance of a construction certificate (CC). This is critical because DAs are increasingly being approved with a significant number of conditions requiring additional resolution after a council provides approval.
“We need to get keys in doors and while it is important to track council performance on DA approval timeframes, we must also have a clearer understanding of the time it is taking to actually get projects under construction,” said Stuart Ayres, CEO, UDIA NSW.
While the Housing Delivery Authority provides a streamlined assessment process for larger complex developments, we know the Government is forecasting up to half of its NSW housing Accord Targets will come from its Transport Oriented Development and Low and Mid-rise programs, which won’t benefit from this accelerated pathway.
“The Government has set an ambitious housing target linked to low and medium density apartments in infill areas, but we know challenging feasibilities will limit this ambition and even where projects are viable, they will take 2-3 years to build. This means tracking Agency performance will be critical to ensure that where these proposals move forward, they don’t get through the development application front door only to find themselves in a deeper, darker waiting room,” said Stuart Ayres.
UDIA also encourages the Government to further break down the data in both the existing Council League table and this new Agency League table to show how long specific types of residential development are taking to approve.
“In the middle of a housing crisis, we can’t be lumping the approval timeframes for a residential tower of 100 apartments or a 500-home subdivision into the same category as the approval of a pool fence or a minor house improvement,” said Mr Ayres.
“The Premier has made it clear he wants more homes under construction and more keys in the doors of new homes. This initiative will shine a light on the agencies that are stopping this from happening sooner,” said Stuart Ayres.
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Media Enquiries: Deanna Lane, Director of Media & Communications
UDIA NSW and National dlane@udiansw.com.au 0416 295 898