Revealed: The state agencies holding up new housing in NSW

State agencies with key roles in approving new homes such as Sydney Water and the Rural Fire Service will for the first time have their performances publicly monitored in a bid to ensure departments do not slow down councils waiting to sign off on developments.

As the Minns government desperately tries to speed up development approvals to meet its ambitious targets of building 75,000 new homes each year, it will publish a new league table from Monday “to hold itself accountable on housing delivery and development across NSW”.

The state government says its agencies must be held to account to ensure there are no delays to housing approvals.Credit: Simon Schluter

Delays or conflicts in approvals or advice from the state’s 22 agencies, state-owned corporations and electrical supply authorities can prevent a council issuing a development approval, which then slows down the delivery of housing.

However, on the back of the success of council league tables – launched in July to expose councils that are dragging their heels in approving development applications – the state government will publish an agency league table to ensure departments also stay on track.

The league tables will show data on the number of concurrences, integrated development approvals and referrals – known as CIRs – for each government agency over the last six months.

It will also measure how many of the agencies are meeting their legislated timeframes, with an
expectation of meeting them in 90 per cent of all cases. Timeframes differ for each agency.

The latest data shows Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy are among the top performers in meeting their deadlines. But the Rural Fire Service, which assessed 1809 cases in the past six months, only met its target in 83 per cent of cases.

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said the government formed the Housing Taskforce to tackle delays by bringing representatives from each agency together to resolve conflicts.

The taskforce has resolved 1985 CIR cases, unblocking about 31,800 dwellings, he said. This has resulted in the determination of 704 development applications, with a 94 per cent approval rate.

“We want the planning pipeline from lodgement, to assessment, commencement and completion, to be working as efficiently as possible because that is what will actually see a family, a downsizer or a young person put a key in the door of their new home,” Scully said.

“Just like what we have done with councils, this is about holding ourselves to account, improving our own performance and making sure that everyone is able to get into a home.”

Scully said since the introduction of council league tables, the number of councils meeting assessment timeframes has improved from 63 councils – or 49 per cent in July 2024 – to 77 councils – or 60 per cent – in February 2025.

However, there are still several councils falling short and Scully has demanded improvements from six, including four in Sydney which are: Georges River, Sutherland Shire, Willoughby and North Sydney.

The councils have been given a month to devise an action plan to improve their performance or risk a government intervention.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.