Regional Plan Reviews – our submissions to the Department of Planning and Environment

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment has had multiple Regional Plan Reviews on exhibition recently. These plans set the 20-year planning vision for the Hunter, New England North West, Central Coast, and Central West & Orana. Each Plan includes strategies and actions related to housing supply, diversity, and affordability.

Exhibition periods for all these Plans occurred over the Christmas/New Years break and we busily attended Zoom workshops in February to inform our submissions. We have now made submissions on all regions with a green dot and are waiting for exhibition of Plans with red dots:

A copy of all our submissions can be found here.
Note: The Illawarra Shoalhaven Regional Plan was reviewed in 2020.

In each case, we tried to list useful recommendations for the Department when thinking about future planning for housing affordability. Oftentimes we reiterated the need for:

  1. an extensive social and affordable housing acquirement/construction program,
  2. Affordable Housing Contributions Schemes or fit-for-purpose and transparent Affordable Housing Planning Agreement Policies,
  3. mixed use, residential infill strategies targeting specific sites in established towns/cities and satellite villages,
  4. public land dedicated to non-market housing, and
  5. tighter regulations on short-term rental accommodation.