13 October 2010
The Urban Taskforce would be nothing without its members. Your support has made a real difference in 2009/2010.
Our Annual Review for the last financial year is now available here. During this period, urban development issues were at the forefront of community debate. The Urban Taskforce Australia has played a key role in keeping the public discussion balanced and sensible.
In particular, we worked closely with the media, politicians and senior public servants to ensure the economic and social consequences of anti-development policies were understood. We backed up our public and private advocacy efforts with detailed research and hard facts.
Notably, we commissioned an independent report, Going Nowhere, to illustrate the collapse in NSW property development, since 2002. It shows how the breakdown in NSW has not been mirrored in other comparable states. It explains how the development of new housing, well-located workplaces and quality retail precincts will continue to fall short of NSW’s requirements, as long as the planning system is unreformed. It reveals that, without reform, the NSW budget would lose up to $2.5 billion in revenue by 2020 and up to $10.5 billion in revenue by 2028.
Going Nowhere was complemented by Deny Everything, a report detailing how the NSW planning system can be made to work once again. The report shows how difficult it is for any business to buy land and invest in NSW with certainty about the likelihood and timeliness of a planning approval. Both Going Nowhere and Deny Everything spell out a concise 12 point plan for reform. Some of the points have already been partially implemented by the government, although much more work is required.
The year was marked with some key wins for the urban development industry and the wider community who enjoy the benefits of new homes, shopping centres, commercial office space and industrial development.
The Urban Taskforce campaigned for federal and state government action to restore confidence in the development industry by:
- allowing urban areas to grow outward by releasing more commercially developable land;
- backing efforts to develop more compact, pedestrian friendly, mixed-use communities around high quality transport services;
- cutting red tape and holding costs;
- slashing local and state government development levies; and
- abolishing undefined and uncertain levy obligations altogether.
This last year’s major achievements include:
- the Federal Government’s decision to abandon plans, to require new urban development projects to contribute to off-site infrastructure, for the national broadband network;
- extending the life of existing development consents to five years and requiring development consents, issued up until 1 July 2011, to be for a full five year period;
- a lower threshold for joint regional planning panels ($10 million, down from the original $50 million and $20 million thresholds proposed by former Minister Frank Sartor) – allowing more projects to be determined by experts, rather than local politicians;
- new restrictions on local council development levies in NSW;
- a torrent of high level state and federal government expert reports demanding wholesale planning reform;
- new “zero stamp duty” initiatives designed to boost off-the-plan sales and improve the ability of developers to finance projects; and
- promises by the NSW Opposition, to exceed the housing targets laid out by the NSW Government and their declaration, that fixing the shousing supply is the state’s number one economic challenge.
We’re committed to keeping a strong program of activity going in 2010/2011 and beyond. We look forward to continuing our efforts – in collaboration with our members, government and the wider community – to keep the Australian development industry strong.
Once again, thank you for your ongoing support for our work.
