The Business Planning reform gets funding and impetus

Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the Victorian Government has made substantial advances in the delivery of planning reform in Victoria. The Government prioritised planning reforms in its plan for economic recovery, with the allocation of $111 million funding in the 2020-21 State Budget to enable implementation.

Better Regulation Victoria Review 2019-20

As your readers may recall, in March 2019, the Treasurer and the Minister for Planning commissioned a review led by Better Regulation Victoria (BRV) into planning and building approvals. BRV was supported by an Advisory Board comprising Bill Kusznirczuk, Radley de Silva and Kate Roffey, each of whom brought specific expertise to the review. The review looked at the root causes of why planning and building approvals have become so complex and time consuming and, in many cases, less effective than they should be.

The benefits of reducing unnecessary costs and delays is significant. Work that we commissioned as part of the review estimated that the economic cost of avoidable delays in planning are in the order of $400 to $600 million a year – or up to 2% of the value of the construction sector’s annual output of $33 billion. Reducing these avoidable costs – which our planning review sought to do – will have significant beneficial impacts on housing affordability and investment certainty as well as supporting economic recovery and jobs growth.

BRV received over 100 submissions in response to the Discussion Paper, released in October 2019. The consultation process confirmed strong support for the proposals contained in the Discussion Paper and we received a lot of practical and valuable suggestions from expert stakeholders, including VPELA, about how better outcomes and faster approvals could be delivered.

Our final recommendations focussed on steps which can be taken along the entire approvals chain – from strategic planning to permits to the post-permit stage and in building approvals – to ensure the adoption of best practices, reform of the rules and the simplification of processes.

In addition to the BRV work, the Government established the Building Victoria’s Recovery Taskforce in April 2020 to provide urgent advice (including on planning) on how to support economic recovery.

Victorian Government response

The Government has responded to both the BRV review and the Taskforce report by announcing the implementation of important reforms, including the setting up of the new Development Facilitation unit in DELWP. Other reforms, including those from the BRV report, are being delivered in three packages:

• $52.2 million over 4 years to improve planning processes and streamline decision-making. This includes funding for a Better Approvals program to be delivered through every Council and a Better Reporting framework to improve accountability for timeframes.

• $43.2 million over 4 years to make the approvals process simpler and quicker for developments, giving investors even more confidence to build more projects in Victoria. This includes $3.86 million to streamline the approval pathway for social and affordable housing in private developments. It also includes $7 million for the VPA to advance planning for its 19 Priority Projects; $7 million for the Streamlining for Growth program to assist councils to plan for local developments and $4 million for Councils to upgrade their digital systems to enable more applications to be lodged and processed on line.

• $15.8 million in asset funding to enable the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) to improve its digital systems for processing permits and planning scheme amendments.

Separately, a further $9.3 million over 3 years has been allocated to VCAT to improve its registry processes and staffing to reduce the backlog and achieve a faster turnaround in cases.

DELWP is moving swiftly to ensure effective implementation of these planning reforms – with work being coordinated by Matt Vincent who is the Executive Director of Planning Implementation. Matt is currently finalising implementation plans and is commencing consultation on each of the reform streams with peak bodies, Councils (through the Municipal Association of Victoria) and the planning sector more broadly. It is expected that many reforms will be rolled out by mid-year and legislative amendments introduced in two groups during the course of 2021.

The importance of bedding down all of these planning reforms streams cannot be over-stated: they are vital to streamlining the system and reducing delays and costs, while ensuring that the integrity of planning objectives is maintained and that our planning system is effective. The economic recovery task which Victoria currently faces make these reforms even more critical.