The Planning System Reforms Bill 2025 is now before Parliament and is expected to progress through the legislative process over the coming months. Once passed, the changes will gradually be implemented across NSW, providing clearer, faster pathways for development approvals and housing delivery.
What’s Changing
- The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 is being overhauled — the current system is seen as outdated, with excessive complexity slowing down housing approvals and infrastructure.
- NSW is introducing faster, simpler approval pathways:
• A new Development Coordination Authority to act as a single contact point for all state government advice on development and planning.
• The Housing Delivery Authority will be enshrined in law, making its role in delivering homes permanent. NSW Government
• Complying Development is being expanded; councils will have only 10 days to approve small variations or risk them being deemed approved.
• A new “Targeted Assessment Pathway” will sit between full development assessment and complying development, for developments in areas that have already had strategic planning or community consultation.
Additional Reforms & Certainty
- DA (Development Application) standards will be more proportional — what’s required will depend on the scale and complexity of a project, not a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Conditions attached to approvals will be standardised to reduce delays once consent is granted.
- The objects of the EP&A Act will be updated to include housing delivery, climate resilience, and proportionality in decision-making. NSW Government
- Community consultation rules will be harmonised via a single, state-wide “Community Participation Plan.” NSW Government
What’s Being Removed / Simplified
- The regionally significant development pathway and regional planning panels will be removed to reduce duplication and hold-ups.
- Appeal and review processes are to be updated to encourage resolution outside of the Land & Environment Court when possible.
Why It Matters
- NSW is facing urgent housing affordability challenges, high costs, slow approvals, and many people being priced out, or forced to live far away from families and workplaces.
- The reforms are meant to modernise the planning system, reduce red tape, speed up delivery, and ensure development is aligned with good outcomes for communities, infrastructure, and the environment.
The Planning System Reforms Bill 2025 is now before Parliament and is expected to progress through the legislative process over the coming months. Once passed, the changes will gradually be implemented across NSW, providing clearer, faster pathways for development approvals and housing delivery.
For more details on the reforms and how they may affect your property or development plans, visit the NSW Government Planning Portal.