The vision of the NSW Planning Portal was to provide a digital experience that supports effective planning and decision-making. The focus was developing and enhancing the NSW Planning Portal to enable digital services for high-volume, high-frequency transactions of the NSW planning system, primarily to support the Development Application (DA) process.
Efficiencies drive economic benefits
The first order policy principle of the program was to leverage the NSW Planning Portal to drive efficiency in the NSW planning system – people, process and technology. The program is a key enabler for major economic benefits, which is foundational to the NSW planning reform agenda, including cutting red tape, fast-tracking DA assessments in a consistent and transparent way for NSW homeowners.
The NSW Planning Portal also supports the eConstruction legislative reforms, which drive further efficiencies in the planning process.
As of September 2024, there were more than 438,000 users registered with the NSW Planning Portal to conduct business with the NSW planning system and Building Commission NSW. This includes all 128 councils and more than 2,500 private certifiers. Since 1 July 2021, there have been 195,212 local development applications (DA) determined through the Planning Portal. Of these, 188,762 were approved, with an estimated development value of $174.18 billion.
The NSW Planning Portal has now established itself as a foundational platform capable of supporting future Planning reform.
Digital enables a range of positive improvements
In July 2023, an Expert Review conducted a Gate 6 Post-Implementation review. The expert reviewer stated that NSW Planning Portal:
“... has a high profile in NSW Government and is seen as a successful major digital initiative. For the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) [now DPHI] this critical State digital infrastructure is a fundamental enabler to provide secure government service delivery for Planning stakeholders and the broader digital economy.
“Stakeholders have already observed positive improvements and have relayed this to the Review Team. In interviews, stakeholders described many substantial strategic benefits that have been enabled, based on this new capability.
“There is strong stakeholder support for this new capability which provides a foundation to effectively and efficiently support future Planning Policy reform, reflecting the Medium/High rating.”
Assurance keeps the project on-track
In FY2024, Digital NSW commissioned the Nous Group (Nous) to conduct an evaluation of the Digital Restart Fund (DRF) component on DAF projects.
The evaluation noted that benefit realisation remained a consistent theme in assurance review recommendations across the lifecycle of the project.
Nous stated:
“The assurance process appeared to be useful in helping the project remain on track as early recommendations on scheduling and stabilisation were actioned and the program ended up being delivered successfully.”
Key program details
Delivery agency: Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI)
DAF assurance tier: 2
Estimated cost to completion: $50 million
Project start date: 1 July 2020
Project end date: 30 June 2023
For more information, visit Digital Assurance or contact the team at: ICTAssurance@customerservice.nsw.gov.au.