Final Report PlanFirst Review Taskforce - Department of Planning

The Hon Craig Knowles MP
Minister for Infrastructure and Planning
Minister for Natural Resources
Level 33
Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Dear Minister
PlanFirst Review Taskforce
28 July 2003
As you are aware from 1 November 2002, NSW consent authorities began collecting an additional
'PlanFirst' fee on all development applications valued at over $50,000.
Revenue from the fee was to be used to part fund the development of regional strategies and to
provide funding assistance to local councils to improve strategic planning and delivery of new local
plans. Allocation of a certain proportion of the fee revenue to local government was seen as critical
in implementing the 'new' system at the local level. The intention was that the State government
would also provide funding, for the implementation of the reforms, equivalent to that collected
through the fee.
Term of Reference No. 3 of the PlanFirst Taskforce is to:
'Advise on how the strategic planning fee currently being collected on certain development
applications should be used to progress reform of the planning system'.
At its last meeting, the Taskforce examined the current state of play in relation to collection of the
fee and considered possible options for the ongoing collection and use of the fee.
The Taskforce was of the view that the EP&A Act provides for State and regional planning as a
legitimate and core function of the State Government and that a stand alone, additional fee on
development is not necessarily the most equitable way to fund this fundamental and central role of
government. Accordingly, funding for these core functions is more appropriately sourced from
Treasury during the annual budget process.
However, the Taskforce considered that the fee should be retained in the short term and at least
until the end of the 2003/04 financial year. The abolition or retention of the fee in a different form
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1 September 2003
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