UDIA NSW welcomed Minister Robert’s announcement today regarding the cancellation of the Draft Design and Place SEPP.UDIA had called for the immediate cancellation of the policy in our submission in February due to the unacceptable impacts on housing supply and affordability.Throughout the process including the period while the draft policy was on exhibition, UDIA NSW always believed that the principles and intent of the Design & Place SEPP to improve design and environmental outcomes were right, however our chief concerns expressed in our submissions and meetings, were that the approach and method of implementation would have been disastrous for NSW and only made the housing and affordability crisis worse.“The recent announcement is recognition of this Minister’s genuine commitment to improving housing supply and affordability and is a major win for home buyers in NSW,” said Steve Mann, CEO, UDIA NSW.“While UDIA remains supportive of a principles-based policy and the cancellation of the draft Design & Place SEPP clears the way for an approach that can deliver critical environmental outcomes such as achieving NetZero, whilst at the same time ensuring that we tackle the housing and affordability crisis and we look forward to working with the Minister on an effective way to achieve both,” he added.To tackle the Housing and Affordability Crisis across NSW, UDIA is calling for a broad based housing package that provides funding for enabling infrastructure to support greenfield homes and remove barriers to new apartments such as making it easier to access finance for projects.
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Media Enquiries:Deanna Lane 0416 295 898 or dlane@udiansw.com.au