By Lilia Guan
The Urban Taskforce, a peak body for the property development industry, said the New South Wales Department of Planning’s Reconnecting the Community with the Planning System report, gave more power to Not-In-My-backyard (NIMBY) groups to block new housing and job-creating development.
Urban Taskforce’s chief executive, Aaron Gadiel said the degree to which planning in NSW was already designed around the aspirations of NIMBY was evident in building statistics.
Mr Gadiel said until 2007, NSW was the nation’s number one state for building activity.
“In 2007 Victoria stole Victoria stole NSW’s title,” he said.
“In the last financial year, for every dollar spent by builders in NSW $1.20 was spent in Victoria.”
He said during the last financial year work started on 52000 new Victorian private sector homes, while NSW only had half that number of work on new houses.
“Rents for three bedroom homes in outer suburban Sydney have increased by 30 percent in the last three years,” Mr Gadiel said.
“Rents for three bedroom homes across NSW have been increasing by average of nine percent a year over the last three years.”
Mr Gadiel said the pace of urban development and expansion was something that divided the community.
“Everyone has a different attitude about urban expansion and those attitudes won’t go away,” he said.
“Those that oppose development usually claim they weren’t adequately consulted, but what they’re really trying to say is that they were consulted but they don’t agree with the final decision.”
The process for major urban developments means everyone in the community gets a say, said Mr Gadiel.
“People are welcome to disagree with decisions, but they shouldn’t complain there’s not been enough consultation over developments,” he said.
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