Politics

NSW

Property development

Editorial

Councils must stop holding back development

The Herald's View October 20, 2025 — 4.02pm

Building to relieve the housing crisis still lags in NSW, and Premier Chris Minns has correctly laid a huge part of the blame on the failure of sluggish councils to tackle housing supply.

In a grim achievement, NSW is falling behind other states in efforts to build homes.

But new changes to NSW’s 50-year-old planning act, including a three-person Housing Delivery Authority with power to set significant developments on a fast track and to bypass councils, are aimed at taking development out of the doldrums.

Minns said the labyrinthine planning system not only acted as a drag on construction but that it had hampered the provision of new housing. “

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