Jobs growth must guide SA’s planning reform

The draft planning reform agenda released for public comment by South Australia’s Expert Panel on Planning Reform must be a key driver for the economic future of the state, according to the Urban Development Institute of Australia (SA).

“Planning reform is a key enabler of jobs growth,” said Terry Walsh, UDIA (SA) Executive Director.

“At a time when the state’s economic future is very much hanging in the balance, proposals for planning reform must be put under the microscope to ensure they unlock growth, streamline processes and deliver certainty for investors.

“The UDIA (SA) welcomes the release of the panel’s Our Ideas for Planning Reform and looks forward to carefully reviewing all of the proposals.

“In particular, we will be looking for actions that support reforms to remove red tape as previously pledged by the Premier.

“Over the past year, SA lost 6,400 full-time jobs and 3,600 part-time jobs, while 3,900 South Australians moved interstate. We built 25% fewer dwellings than we did two years ago, and our population grew by less than 1% which is half the national average.

“The overriding imperative of any regulatory reforms must be to help reverse these trends.  Every million dollars invested in construction generates $2.9 million and 37 jobs in the economy as a whole. A cost-effective planning system is essential to unlock construction investment.”

Mr Walsh says there are numerous examples of how the state’s planning system is currently acting as a “handbrake on the economy”, pointing to:

• 11,000 pages of planning rules across the state, including 130 different residential zones, which creates huge compliance costs for applicants.

• 40 of South Australia’s 68 councils have not comprehensively reviewed their zoning rules at any time during the past 10 years – meaning that most of the state’s zoning is hopelessly outdated.

• It takes, on average, three years to process a zoning change, which delays investment and represents a failure to keep pace with drivers of economic change.

• More than one-third of planning appeals result in a reversal of the original decision, which means there is a one in three chance that a challenged decision will be wrong.

• The Government’s unwillingness to adopt an agreed infrastructure funding and delivery model that provides clarity of responsibilities for all parties to contribute their share of timely funding/delivery of core infrastructure to support development of new communities.

“The UDIA (SA) has been an active contributor to the review process and is looking to Our Ideas for Planning Reform to recommend cost-effective solutions to these and other documented instances of system failure,” added Mr Walsh.

“And we will be urging the State Government not to progress any reform recommendation that does not materially support South Australia’s competitive position.

“We expect precise statements of reform, not generalisations that appeal to all but achieve little progress.”

Established in 1971, the UDIA (SA) represents the interests of the development industry in South Australia in collaboration with all levels of government. It represents all sections of the urban development sector, including developers, councils and service providers such as engineers, planners and surveyors. As the fifth largest contributor to output in SA, the property development industry employs 56,000 people or 7% of the state’s total workforce, and accounts for almost $9 billion or 12% of Gross State Product.

FURTHER INFORMATION:  Please contact
UDIA (SA) Executive Director Terry Walsh on 0408 704 790