Revealed: The secret squad tasked with unclogging NSW bureaucracy

Representatives from 13 government agencies have been forced into the one room in a bid to get housing moving.

A secret government taskforce set up to clear bureaucratic road blocks standing in the way of new housing has unclogged 13,000 homes stuck in limbo in the past three months.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that staff from more than a dozen government agencies were ordered in September into the same room in Parramatta and told to put their heads together to get stalled projects moving.

The taskforce, under former Infrastructure NSW CEO Janine Lonergan, was designed to unblock delays caused when projects require approvals and reports from more than one government agency.

Last year, almost 10,000 applications – worth more than $22 billion in total – required advice or approvals from a government agency before getting off the ground.

Leading industry figures have been calling for these “concurrence” approvals to be overhauled due to the delays they impose on new projects.

Premier Chris Minns said the housing task force has helped unclog blockages in the system. Picture: NewsWire

In one case identified by the housing task force, one 1,000-lot residential subdivision was wedged between two agencies both requiring conflicting advice.

While one agency required land to be cleared for bushfire hazard reduction before the subdivision could go ahead, another agency required that same area to be untouched to protect a creek line.

Another housing development, in Greater Newcastle, had been stuck in the system for 865 days.

Planning Minister Paul Scully accused the former government of leaving the planning system in a mess. Picture: NewsWire

When examined by the housing task force, the government said, the case was closed within a week.

In another case, an approval for a large housing development in Upper Hunter was issued within a day.

In total, developments to deliver 13,000 homes have been unblocked.

The Telegraph revealed the convoluted flow chart tying our planning system in knots.

In an interview, Premier Chris Minns said that getting bureaucrats together in the one room to clear roadblocks was one way he was going to fix the “snakes and ladders” planning flowchart holding Sydney back.

“One of the biggest drivers of delay in the planning system has been NSW government departments waiting an extremely long time to give concurrences and approvals,” he told the Telegraph.

“Once the DA is approved, oftentimes there may be up to 100 conditions imposed by government agencies after the development application,” he said.

The chart included up to 50 steps for a simple DA. Image: Supplied

“We’ve tried to speed that up.”

It comes after Urban Development Institute of Australia CEO Stuart Ayres identified DAs being approved “with strings attached” as being one of the main hurdles to getting projects off the ground.

The task force, which was originally designed as a pilot program, will now be made permanent.

“Communities don’t want to hear that two Government agencies can’t see eye-to-eye on a housing development,” Planning Minister Paul Scully said.

“They want to see homes being built with the minimum of fuss, and with this task force we are one step closer to that.”

Originally published as Revealed: The secret squad tasked with unclogging NSW bureaucracy