UDIA NSW strongly supports today’s announcement by the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully to trial AI in the NSW Planning system to speed up development assessment times in NSW.
“AI is here to stay, and is being embraced widely in other sectors, so it makes sense that we use it to help councils speed up their planning approval processes,” said Gavin Melvin, Acting CEO, UDIA NSW.
The use of these technologies has the potential to slash planning approvals times and free up scarce planning resources by letting them focus on more complex assessments.
Improving the planning system performance was identified as one of the priorities of National Cabinet in August 2023 which acknowledged that one of the major impediments to housing delivery is slow and inefficient planning systems.
This has been especially true for NSW where the slow planning system restricts housing and drives up costs. Improving the planning system is a key lever which Government can pull to fast track the delivery of housing.
“We congratulate the Government on today’s announcement and encourage Councils to take up this trial. If the trial is successful, we encourage the Government to consider mandating the use of this technology across the state to help modernise the NSW planning system,” said Mr Melvin.
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Media Enquiries: Deanna Lane, Director, Media & Communications
UDIA NSW and National: 0416 295 898 or dlane@udiansw.com.au