9 November 2010
The NSW Governments decision to kill off special laws to fast-track projects is disappointing, according to the Urban Taskforce. The government today released the findings of Dr Neil Shepherds review into the Nation Building and Jobs Plan.
The review recommended that the NSW Nation Building and Jobs Plan (State Infrastructure Delivery) Act 2009 be allowed to expire as the federal economic stimulus program is wound-down. It said that no new categories of projects should be added. The government today accepted all recommendations.
The Urban Taskforces chief executive, Aaron Gadiel, said the work of the NSW Nation Building and Jobs Plan Taskforce was refreshing because it has broken away from the traditional rigid thinking of many local councils.
These public servants took a commonsense approach to housing approvals, Mr Gadiel said.
Its a shame their more efficient approvals system was limited to just public housing.
Its particularly disappointing that there is now no prospect of the system being extended to private sector projects.
Mr Gadiel said that government needs to give both public and private developments an equally efficient approval process.
Both public and private projects have the ability to deliver social and economic benefits, he said.
Its nonsense to suggest that publicly funded projects always carry greater social benefits than privately funded projects.
Almost everyone shops and works in premises developed by the private sector.
Most middle and low income people live in housing provided by private sector developers – not public housing authorities.
When private developers are unable to develop new housing, its ordinary homebuyers and renters who suffer most.
Mr Gadiel said that NSW property development has been in serious decline since 2002.
Until 2007, NSW was the nations number one state for building activity this shouldnt have been surprising given that its Australias largest state, he said.
However, in 2007, Victoria stole NSWs title.
Victoria has never looked back in the last financial year, for every dollar spent by builders in NSW, $1.20 was spent in Victoria.
While NSW accounts for 33 per cent of the population, it makes up just 24 per cent of Australias building activity.
In the last financial year, work started on 52,000 new Victorian private sector homes, while in NSW work started on only 26,000 homes.
The housing undersupply is the main reason why rents in the inner suburbs of Sydney have been increasing at nine times the rate of inflation.
Each year more apartments and townhouses are built in Melbourne, than in Sydney.
On a per capita basis, Brisbane approves nearly three times as many new apartments and townhouses as Sydney.
We did hope that the Shepherd review would shine a light on problems in the states planning system.
Clearly, more time is required before a government moves decisively on this issue.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
