Consolidated State Environmental Planning Policies commence in NSW

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) has consolidated 45 State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) and deemed SEPPs into 11 new environmental planning instruments.

Snapshot

• From 1 March 2022, the consolidation of 45 SEPPs and deemed SEPPs into 11 new thematic SEPPs commenced.
• This is primarily an administrative consolidation and there are no material policy changes under the new consolidated SEPPs.
• The consolidated SEPPs were prepared to align with the Minister for Planning's Planning Principles, which have been recently discontinued.

SEPP consolidation seeks to simplify the planning framework

On 1 March 2022, DPE consolidated 45 SEPPs and deemed SEPPs into 11 new thematic SEPPs to correspond with nine focus areas under the recently discontinued Planning Principles.

The table at Attachment 1 below provides an overview of the SEPP consolidation and the corresponding focus area under the discontinued Planning Principles.

Provisions of the repealed SEPPs have been carried over into the new SEPPs as ‘chapters’. DPE has confirmed that the SEPP consolidation does not materially change the effect of the repealed SEPPs due to the application of section 30A of the Interpretation Act 1987 (NSW) to the transferred provisions.

Any redundant or outdated provisions of the repealed SEPPs have not been carried over to the new consolidated SEPPs. Some administrative amendments have also been made to update references to government agencies and old legislation.

References within existing legislation and policies to the repealed SEPPs will be deemed to be references to the relevant provisions of the new consolidated SEPPs.

Further reforms to come?

Legislative updates are planned to reflect the SEPP consolidation and local councils will be required to amend planning certificates issued under section 10.7 of the EP&A Act.

It is unclear whether further substantive reform of the NSW planning framework is on the horizon and it remains to be seen whether the Minister will introduce additional changes.

If you would like to discuss the latest reforms, please get in touch with us.

By Peter Briggs, Partner, Tom Dougherty, Senior Associate and Rachel Holland, Graduate.

Update: This post has been amended to reflect that the Minister’s Planning Principles were discontinued in March 2022.

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