The state is naming and shaming the groups it feels are responsible for slow housing approvals.
NSW premier Chris Minns has introduced a new rolling report, called the “State Agency League Table,” to keep track of all the entities involved with processing approvals for new homes – and identify who is falling behind.
The report, which will be updated every six months, keeps track of 22 government agencies, state-owned corporations, and electrical supply authorities that are involved in getting the approvals needed for new homes to be built.
These are entities like Sydney Water Corporation, AusGrid, and even the Environment Protection Authority.
These groups are frequently on the receiving end of what’s known as CIRs – concurrences, integrated development approvals and referrals – which they must review before councils can sign off on many new housing initiatives, from single homes to large-scale developments.
The NSW government’s new report publishes the percentage of CIRs that are being processed by these bodies within the legislated timeframe.
Generally, that’s expected to happen within 21 days. When a development application is not exhibited, the timeframe is 40 days.
NSW is taking a full-transparency approach to releasing information about housing approval timelines. Image: Getty
Sydney Trains, for example, has a 95% strike rate on processing CIRs within the cutoff, whereas the Hunter Water Corporation is reportedly only processing 47% of the CIRs that come its way within the legislated time.
The expectation is that these groups should be meeting their timeframes in 90% of all cases.
NSW’s latest move follows the introduction of the Council League Table in 2024, which took a similar approach to calling out local government areas for their housing approval timeframes.
In the Council League Table, the government publishes the average time it takes for LGAs to process housing approvals.
In the latest release, that ranged from 238 days in the Wingecarribee Shire, to Brewarrina, in the state’s north, that generally takes 16 days to assess a development application.
In introducing the new tracker for agencies and government entities, NSW minister for planning and public spaces Paul Scully said that the government was committed to ensuring the planning pipeline worked as efficiently as possible.
“Just like what we have done with councils, this is about holding ourselves to account, improving our own performance and making sure that everyone is able to get into a home.”
The Urban Development Institute of NSW welcomed the introduction of the State Agency League Table, with CEO Stuart Ayres noting the challenge for developers in moving their applications through the requisite agencies.
“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,” Mr Ayres said.
Moreover, the Property Council's executive director of NSW, Katie Stevenson, called it “a positive move towards holding government agencies accountable for unnecessary delays that slow down the delivery of new homes”.
“For too long, projects have been caught in a bureaucratic bottleneck, with post-approval processes delaying shovel-ready developments,” she added.
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