NSW needs a housing ‘supremo’ to override rival government agencies, says alliance

The NSW government has been urged to appoint a housing “supremo” with broad powers to override rival public agencies and compel the delivery of new homes in a bid to overcome planning delays and bureaucratic resistance.

The idea, which is said to have support at high levels of government, is one of 10 that will be pitched directly to Planning Minister Paul Scully on Monday by the Housing Now alliance of business groups, unions and universities.

David Borger is urging the NSW government to appoint a housing “supremo”.Credit: James Brickwood

Chair David Borger, a former Labor housing minister, said the key powers of such a co-ordinator general would be directing government agencies to resolve planning challenges and overriding them where necessary to deliver housing.

“There are a few points in history where you need a supremo to push things through,” he said. “We needed that during the Olympics, we needed it during the global financial crisis and we need it now during the housing crisis.”

The alliance is also urging the government to enforce its new housing targets by automatically zoning land for higher density when councils cannot clearly demonstrate progress toward their targets.

“The government has done some heavy lifting on rezoning, but a rezoning is only as good as its delivery,” Borger said.

“Sausage grinder not working fast enough”: The Housing Now alliance says construction needs to speed up.Credit: Louie Douvis

“The sausage grinder is not working fast enough… If we want to make more housing sausages, we need to break through on major proposals and shorten the time frame on major decision-making. We need government to be brave and take the risk.”

Premier Chris Minns’ administration enacted what he calls the biggest single rezoning in Australian history, and the government has now turned to mechanisms to ensure homes are built – including financing, incentives and penalties for councils, and reform of the planning bureaucracy.

Other key recommendations of the Housing Now platform include streamlining affordable housing policy in NSW, which is currently “confusing and opaque”, setting targets for social and key worker housing, and rezoning churches and other places of worship to allow residential development.

Planning Minister Paul Scully noted the government already had a suite of planning reforms to boost housing supply, and formed a subcommittee of cabinet to coordinate government agencies that contribute to housing delivery.

NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“We welcome positive suggestions from industry and advocates on other measures they believe should be considered to help address the housing crisis,” he said.

But Borger said an independent person outside cabinet was required to intervene when certain agencies needed to be overridden – in a similar way to the appointment of Tom Gellibrand, whose task is to coordinate and speed up infrastructure delivery.

Coalition planning spokesman Scott Farlow recently cited the declining building approval rate in NSW and urged the government to focus on expediting development.

“This government is taking housing affordability backwards by making it financially unfeasible to build with its taxes and charges and scaring off investors by ending land tax indexation,” he said earlier this month.

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