The peak body for local government in NSW has broadly welcomed changes to the state's environmental planning legislation, announced yesterday by the Minns Government.
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.
Local Government NSW (LGNSW) President Mayor Phyllis Miller OAM commended the NSW Government on its bipartisan approach to simplifying and streamlining the planning processes.
Mayor 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," Mayor Miller 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," Mayor Miller said.
"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," Mayor Miller said.
"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" Mayor Miller said.
On a less welcome note, the Bill also proposes to enshrine the Housing Delivery Authority (the HDA) as a permanent fixture in the NSW planning system. The introduction of the HDA in November 2024 was condemned at the time by the local government sector who saw it as an attempt to circumvent councils in local decision making.
