The Housing Taskforce was established in September 2024, as a pilot scheme initially, to tackle post consent requirements where developments are bogged down in a part of the planning system that has historically had no oversight and has become increasingly complex.

The Taskforce brings together staff from multiple NSW Government agencies and departments seconded into the same office in Parramatta to go line by line through projects clogged in the system while solving problems to unblock applications.

In 2023, 9,772 applications worth over $22 billion required advice or approvals from a government agency and over 1,900 of those DAs required advice or approvals from more than one agency.

Additionally, prior to a development application (DA) being approved by council or a construction certificate being issued, other NSW Government agencies sometimes need to assess a range of impacts that a development may have on the surrounding environment, such as traffic, bushfire risks, biodiversity, water or heritage.

These assessments often get bogged down between conflicting department requirements and requests for additional information, which can cause long delays in the planning process, resulting in slower approvals and ultimately fewer homes being built.

To date the Housing Taskforce has been focused on streamlining and coordinating the assessment of housing development applications, some other examples include:

• Unblocking the approval for a housing development in the Greater Newcastle area that had been in the system for 865 days. The Taskforce worked with Heritage NSW to obtain the additional information required to complete the assessment. The case was closed within a week.
• Resolving an issue for a residential building in the Sydney CBD that required approval from Sydney Metro to proceed to construction. The Taskforce was able to work with Sydney Metro to issue its approval avoiding delays to the start of construction.
• Issued an approval within one day to ensure statutory timeframes were met for a large housing development in the Upper Hunter Region. The Taskforce and Heritage NSW worked closely with the applicant to resolve Heritage issues and get the information that was needed.

Following the success of the Taskforce, the Minns Government will be continuing this while looking to the future and examining how this program can be expanded.

The Taskforce is not only speeding up pre-determination approvals but also post-determination approvals meaning more homes can move from the approved to commenced stage faster.

The Housing Taskforce is part of the Minns Labor Government’s plan to build a better NSW with more homes – so young people, families and workers have somewhere to live.

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully said: 

“Given the success of the pilot, I am pleased to say that the Housing Taskforce will become a permanent fixture of the NSW planning system.

“Under the former Government, five Ministers oversaw the planning system. It is no wonder that we have ended up with such a cumbersome and complex system.

“Under the Minns Government we want every stage of the planning system, pre-lodgement, assessment and post-consent to be working as effectively and efficiently as possible to deliver more homes and jobs, faster.

“Communities don’t want to hear that two Government agencies can’t see eye-to-eye on a housing development. They want to see homes being built with the minimum of fuss, and with this taskforce we are one step closer to that.

“This Taskforce is about having representatives from state agencies, vital to planning approvals, under one roof to make it easier to consider all of the issues for a particular site in a coordinated way.”