Hills Shire Council asks for Minns government housing to be ‘switched off’ for Shire as ‘reward’ for housing delivery

A Sydney council has called for the Minns government to ‘reward’ their already booming housing numbers by exempting them from reforms that will force them to build higher density housing.

A northwest Sydney council has called on the NSW government to “reward” its history of meeting and exceeding housing targets by excluding them from planning reforms to see higher density housing delivered across the state.

The Hills Shire Council has voted to object the Minns government’s push for councils to build more low and mid-rise housing options near transport hubs, town centres, and other “well located areas” to meet the 2029 Housing Accord target of 377,000 new homes across the state.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and his Labor government are pushing for sweeping housing reform to address the state’s ongoing housing crisis. Picture; NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Councillors approved a draft submission by Hills Shire Council general manager Michael Edgar urging the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure against progressing the “panoptic” reforms.

“The reforms you are putting forward are reinforcing the master servant relationship between State agencies and Council and the effect will be quite different from what you intend,” Mr Edgar said in a statement to the government.

“Council believes these reforms will produce detrimental effects in our shire … undoing the goodwill between Council and its residents in our low-density areas.”

Mr Edgar said The Hills Shire had not only set “aggressive” housing targets and unlocked land to accommodate 50,000 dwellings – with further capacity for 10,000 additional dwellings – but “is one of the very few councils that has met its targets in terms of housing delivery”.

Council documents to support the submission said around 22,670 new dwellings have been approved in The Hills since 2016, with 15,550 new dwellings completed over that same period.

The Hills Shire Council is calling on the NSW government to exempt it from new housing reforms. Picture: Supplied.

The NSW housing reforms push for more low and mid-rise housing around town centres and transport hubs to help fix the housing crisis. Picture: Australasian Property Developments

“We have successfully planned for and are delivering housing growth that consistently exceeds the targets set for the local government area,” Mr Edgar said.

“Council believes these reforms are unnecessary in The Hills Shire and we therefore ask the government reward council be ensuring the reforms are switched off for The Hills Shire.”

Councillors endorsed the submission at their February 20 meeting, in which they aired their own concerns about the reforms being a state government power “grab” to overrules local planning strategies.

“We are against taking away more control and having this cookie cutter approach,” Councillor Mila Kasby said.

Hills Shire councillor Mila Kasby. Picture: Supplied.

Hills Shire councillor Ryan Tracey. Picture: Supplied.

She said that overruling council’s planning controls without considering local infrastructure needs, as the reforms currently do, “will make Sydney unliveable”.

Councillor Ryan Tracey argued councils should be “identified on merit”, rather than adopting the state government’s blanket approach.

“We don’t want landfill, we don’t want to become a council with no oversight of what our communities and residential centres look like,” Cr Tracey said.

He said The Hills had done its “fair share of lifting” in terms of delivering houses to meet the state’s goals adn other councils needed to “lift their game” in comparison.

Councillor Jerome Cox agreed, calling the reforms a “blunt instrument” to fix the housing crisis that felt like the state shifting blame on all councils for the failures of a select few.

“This is another blunt instrument to solve housing problem and it’s the state putting all the blame on council,” Cr Cox said.

“Every time there an issue with housing the state blames council, in away they’re right, but some councils meet these targets, and some councils closer to the city ... seem to not meet their targets and we all get punished for their bad behaviour.”

The Hillls Shire Council is the latest group to object to the sweeping housing reforms, which have proven controversial for a number of councils across Greater Sydney.