Nation Building and Jobs Plan (Economic Stimulus Plan)

In February 2009 the NSW State Government introduced the State’s plan to spend its share of the $6.4 billion allocated to social housing for disadvantaged Australians to deliver the Rudd government $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan (Economic Stimulus Plan).

The intent of the allocation is to build 20,000 new dwellings and refurbish 45,000 existing dwellings across the country. NSW will receive approximately $2 billion and match this with $1 billion from the NSW Government. This will create 9000 new homes in NSW which are to be delivered in two stages:

• Stage 1 is the fast tracking of 851 new homes to be built by June 2010 (primarily houses already planned)
• Stage 2 is a call for tenders from the construction sector for single house and multi-unit land packages, 75% of which must be delivered by the end of 2010.

In order to meet the set targets and allocations, the State Government has implemented changes to the Infrastructure State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure SEPP) 2007 and the State Environmental Panning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing) 2009 which allows the following:

• Housing NSW (former Department of Housing) to self approve social housing developments in residential zones of up to 20 dwellings and a maximum of 8.5 metres in height.
• developments of flats and multi-dwelling housing within 800 metres of a railway station or 400 metres of commercial centres without the need for rezoning.

What does this mean for Ryde?

A number social housing projects on behalf of NSW Housing have been identified within the City of Ryde as receiving funding under the joint Commonwealth / State Government program.

Council is not the consent authority for these projects.

The projects are determined under the provisions of State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007, the State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing) 2009 and by the Nation Building and Jobs Plan Task Force.

The table below provides a summary of each new project and its current status.