6 June 2012
The new initiatives to improve housing supply announced by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure will simplify currently complex processes that are limiting housing supply in the areas of riparian corridors, bushfire planning, biodiversity and Aboriginal heritage, says the Urban Taskforce Australia.
This is a welcome move to cut red tape that is slowing down the planning system in New South Wales, said Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson. Many of our members have been caught up in endless delays to major projects where various government departments have been overly pedantic about environmental and heritage issues. This has contributed to a slowdown in the supply of houses in the state.
We are particularly pleased to see that the government is elevating the importance of growth and housing supply by tackling the complexity and subjectivity in the current regulations for riparian corridors, bushfire planning, biodiversity and in the interpretation of Aboriginal cultural heritage.
The industry will need to see how these initiatives work in practice as they will require new ways of thinking by some of the agencies. It will be important for the Department of Planning and Infrastructure to monitor performance in these four areas of reform and to continue to take a leadership role with other agencies.
The move to a totally new methodology for determining activities in riparian corridors sounds positive but will need to be tested on real projects.
With bushfire planning the proposals to update maps, have one assessment at subdivision stage and the streamlining of approvals are positive moves.
With biodiversity the proposed removal of the Commonwealths role and improvements to mapping and gateway processes will be positive changes but will also need to be tested on real projects.
Proposed reforms in the area of Aboriginal cultural heritage are at the early stage but have the potential to save significant amounts of time.
