Circulars

What’s new or changing

• The Office of Local Government (OLG), with the concurrence of the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, the Hon. Paul Scully MP, has released the Guidelines on the Withdrawal of Development Applications (the Guidelines).

What this will mean for your council

• The Guidelines have been issued under section 23A of the Local Government Act 1993 and councils are required to consider the Guidelines in exercising their development application (DA) assessment functions.
• The Guidelines include a policy statement that encourages councils to contribute to providing more appropriate housing to address the State’s housing shortfall through the expeditious assessment and determination of DAs.
• The Guidelines require councils to allocate appropriate resources to their planning and assessment teams to ensure development applications are assessed and determined expeditiously.
• The Guidelines strongly encourage councils to avoid practices that delay DA assessment within reasonable timeframes.

Key points

• The NSW Government recognises the importance of providing more housing opportunities for people to help drive down the cost of housing and boost the economic productivity of the State.
• NSW councils have an important role to play in housing delivery through their planning and approval process.
• Many councils across the State, particularly in regional areas, have identified the need to urgently address growing unaffordability of housing.
• The NSW Government will continue to develop a range of policies to address NSW’s shortfall in housing.

Where to go for further information

• The Guidelines on the Withdrawal of Development Applications are available on the OLG website.

Brett Whitworth
Deputy Secretary, Local Government