The New South Wales Government has announced the trial of a new online system for complying development applications.

Following the signing of an agreement between the Departments of Planning Technology and Administration, 12 councils and 10 private certifiers were selected to pilot the online processing system.

Planning Minister Tony Kelly said the Electronic Housing Code will use the Government Licensing Service (GLS), which currently manages the online licensing systems for a number of state government departments.

“GLS processes more than 100,000 online applications, renewals and amendments every month across 75 different licence types such as liquor, recreational fishing and home building,” Mr Kelly said in a statement.

“The NSW Housing Code is already delivering streamlined, 10-day approvals for people wanting to undertake routine developments that meet relevant criteria and the introduction of an electronic system is the next step in furthering these efficiencies.”

The pilot is expected to go live in February 2011, before being rolled out to other local government areas.

Mr Kelly said it will be implemented in conjunction with the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW.