NSW Housing Taskforce

The planning system is an important lever in addressing the housing crisis and meeting Housing Accord targets. NSW has an ambitious target to deliver 377,000 new homes over 5 years by July 2029 under the National Housing Accord.

We need an additional 25,000 new homes to be constructed each year in NSW to achieve this target.

Recognising the need for a more efficient process, the NSW Government has reorganised state agency staff and resources to create the NSW Housing Taskforce.

The Housing Taskforce is focused on making sure housing moves efficiently through the planning system by:

• coordinating state agency advice and approvals (integrated development, concurrences and referrals)
• identifying and working to resolve post-consent delays to housing construction and completion, covering consents issued under local and state significant development pathways
• identifying broader system improvements to support housing approvals and completions.
   

When assessing development applications (DAs) for new homes, councils must consider a range of issues, including traffic, bushfires, flooding, biodiversity, water, heritage, pollution, and safety. These considerations often require advice or approval from multiple state agencies before a council can finalise a DA.

In the 2023–24 financial year, 9772 applications, valued at over $22 billion, required advice or approvals from a government agency. Over 1900 of those DAs needed advice from more than one agency.

This Housing Taskforce team is made up of staff from the following state agencies:

• NSW Treasury
• The Cabinet Office
• Premier's Department
• Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI)
• Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment & Water (DCCEEW)
  • Heritage
  • Biodiversity, Conservation and Science
  • Water
• Environment Protection Authority (EPA)
• WaterNSW
• Transport for NSW
• Rural Fire Service
• Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) – Fisheries
• Building Commission NSW
• NSW State Emergency Service
• Homes NSW
• Sydney Water.

Since its inception in August 2024, the Housing Taskforce has been instrumental in fast-tracking development applications (DAs) that require agency advice or approval.

In its first 6 months, this collaborative, whole-of-government effort facilitated the progress of applications for over 30,000 new homes and worked with agencies to progress a range of cases: