The NSW Planning System Reforms Bill 2025 is designed to make the planning system quicker and simpler to navigate, so that more homes and jobs can be delivered across the state.

The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) is the foundation of the State’s housing, infrastructure, and energy delivery. Every decision made about new and existing development is determined by the EP&A Act, but after nearly 50 years, it has become overly complex and ill-equipped to meet modern challenges.

Over time, the planning system has become a barrier preventing the delivery of much needed homes by slowing decision-making and delaying construction. The level of assessment required for simple developments is disproportionate to their impact on communities – in short, we are sweating the small stuff.

As a result, not enough homes are being built. Sydney is now the second least affordable city in the world and twice as many young people are leaving NSW as are arriving. Families, young people and downsizers are being locked out of the communities they want to live in and are being forced to live far from their families, jobs, and essential services.

The EP&A Act needs modernising and following constructive conversations with the NSW Opposition the NSW Planning System Reforms Bill 2025 proposes to:

Faster, simpler approvals

• Establish the Development Coordination Authority, a single front door which will provide advice on development applications and planning proposals on behalf of all NSW Government agencies.
• Enshrine the Housing Delivery Authority in legislation, ensuring that the NSW Government has an enduring role in housing delivery across the state.
• Expand Complying Development, giving councils 10 days to approve small variations on a complying development application, or have it deemed approved.
• Introduce a new ‘Targeted Assessment Pathway’, bridging the gap between a full development assessment and Complying Development, for types of development where strategic planning and community consultation has already taken place.

More certainty for builders and communities

• Improve the standards and requirements on Development Applications (DA) to make sure planning assessments are proportionate to the scale and complexity of development.
• Standardise conditions to provide more certainty and speed up construction once approvals are granted.
• Amend the objects of the EP&A Act to include housing delivery, climate resilience and proportionality in planning decisions for the first time.
• Create a consistent approach to community consultations across the state by establishing a single, state-wide Community Participation Plan for NSW.

Cutting red tape and unnecessary duplication in the planning system

• Remove the regionally significant development pathway and regional planning panels that have created unnecessary duplication and delays in planning decisions.
• Update appeal options and review processes to encourage disputes to be resolved outside of the Land and Environment Court.
• Fix longstanding miscellaneous issues.

Since coming to office in March 2023, the Minns Government has rolled out the biggest reform agenda in NSW history to speed up the delivery of homes by:

• Undertaking the largest reforms to the planning system in the State’s history, through the Transport Oriented Development program, Low and Mid-Rise Housing policy and the Infill Affordable Housing Bonus.
• Establishing the Housing Delivery Authority, which provides a faster and more certain approvals pathway for major housing developments, with over 86,700 homes already declared State Significant.
• Delivering 30,000 new homes on surplus government land, including 8,400 new social housing units in the biggest housing investment in the State’s history.

But the need for legislative and regulatory planning reform has become clear.

These proposed changes are part of the Minns Government’s plan to build a better NSW with more homes, parks and services, so young people, families and key local workers have somewhere to live and in the communities they choose.

Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns said:

“The current system has become a bottleneck in the state’s ability to build more homes – hurting housing supply, increasing costs and reducing community confidence.

“For too long, NSW has been hamstrung by a planning system that delays good projects and makes it harder to build the homes our communities desperately need.

“This Bill is about clearing the path for the right development in the right places, with the right outcomes for the community.”

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:

“NSW is a great place to live, work, raise a family and start a business. It’s a great place to have a home – but there has been too much red tape tying up approvals and construction of new homes.

“That has to change so we can hold onto and attract the people who are vital to powering our economy.

“This is the next commonsense step to increase productivity and continue our transformational planning reforms.”

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said:

“The NSW planning system is responsible for supporting the delivery of our housing, infrastructure, and energy systems. This Bill is designed to make that system fit for a modern NSW.

“In NSW, 90 per cent of development applications are for less than $1 million – to put it simply, we are sweating the small stuff. We need a planning system that supports the delivery of more homes, jobs and investment in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable way.

“Housing is the number one issue for the people of NSW. We need legislative reform, and we need support from every end of the political spectrum so that the system that has guided NSW’s development for the last 50 years can guide NSW’s development in the future.

“This is about making sure the planning system works for the people of NSW.”