Conversations with the Minister series: Connecting communities
Housing affordability is one of the most important issues affecting our society. NSW Minister for Planning, Housing, and Special Minister of State, the Hon. Anthony Roberts MP, lays out the State government’s strategy for a well-planned and connected community.
Residents of NSW should be able to age at home, if they wish, live close to families and friends and travel easily to work, education and social activities.
This is why the government is addressing one of the most important issues affecting our community, economy and global standing with a considered plan for housing affordability.
We want the cities and communities in NSW to be recognised globally as well planned cities that come in all shapes and sizes.
Connecting communities through record construction and investment levels
- With a record 22-billion-dollar pipeline of residential construction underway or 78,400 homes, this unprecedented activity is double any other time in the State’s history.
- We are taking advantage of our unprecedented investment – 73.3 billion over the next four years – in transport infrastructure.
- The government is working with industry, local councils and their communities on ways to make owning a home closer to every person’s reality.
- The government’s major investments in transport also provide an opportunity to look at how we can provide more homes along these modernised transport corridors.
Strategic planning and corridor strategies
- A Plan for Growing Sydney is our 20-year overarching plan for the greater metropolitan area, creating the Greater Sydney Commission that will implement it.
- The plan outlines how we’ll create the 725,000 new homes we’ll need by 2036, how we’ll provide the conditions for jobs growth, how we’ll create places that people will enjoy living in and how we’ll protect our spectacular natural environment.
- We also have a Precinct Support Scheme that provides funding for councils to spend on new or upgraded infrastructure in priority precincts. We allocated an extra $40 million to the scheme in the 2016-2017 budget.
- Recently the Department sought community feedback on how up to $15 million could be spent as part of the planning for three Sydney Metro Northwest precincts.
- This government also has a framework of corridor strategies. These enable councils and government agencies to prioritise and co-ordinate future land-use changes with the delivery of supporting infrastructure
We want to hear from you
A well-planned and connected community drives innovation and productivity developing a strong social fabric at its core.
Housing Affordability Online Consultation:
Q: What can be done to improve housing affordability?
The Hon Anthony Roberts MP is the New South Wales Minister for Planning, the Minister for Housing, and the Special Minister of State since January 2017 in the Berejiklian government. A Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, he has represented the Electorate of Lane Cove for the Liberal Party since 2003. Following the Coalition victory in the March 2011 election, Anthony was appointed Minister for Fair Trading in the O’Farrell Government, assuming his position on 3 April 2011. Upon taking office, he immediately embarked on a wide-ranging Fair Trading reform agenda in areas including the State’s fifty year-old strata and community title laws, the home building sector, the retirement village industry, the motor vehicle industry, and the residential land lease communities sector. He successfully implemented legislation to prohibit the sale, manufacture and possession of synthetic drugs, was responsible for introducing new measures to reduce the number of children falling from apartment windows, and developed new laws to address the issue of ticket scalping for major events in NSW. On 9 December 2013 Anthony was promoted by then-Premier Barry O’Farrell to the role of Minister for Resources and Energy, and Special Minister of State. On 23 April 2014 Premier Mike Baird promoted Anthony to the additional role of Leader of the House in the NSW Legislative Assembly, on top of his existing portfolios. As Leader of the House, Anthony is responsible for the Government’s legislative agenda. Since December 2013 Anthony has embarked on a series of aggressive energy market reforms, including deregulating electricity prices, announcing a market-led rollout of smart electricity meters and ending gold-plating of the electricity networks. In the resources sector he has delivered the landmark NSW Gas Plan, facilitated the signing of an historic agreement on land access between gas producers and landholders, and commenced the first NSW Minerals Industry Action Plan. He served as Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy between 2015 and January 2017.
