Development should not be forced upon suburban North Shore areas without train stations, says Willoughby MP Tim James, as his party spruiks its alternative NSW housing policy.
What happened: Earlier this month, NSW Opposition leader Kellie Sloane made her first major announcement on housing and development.
A statement from Sloane attacked the Minns government’s Low and Mid Rise (LMR) housing policy, calling it a “one-size-fits-all approach”, and promised to restore planning control to local councils.
The policy: Low and Mid Rise housing is part of the Minns government’s larger planning reforms to increase housing in New South Wales. It permits housing up to six storeys within 800 metres of town centres and transport hubs.
It is specifically aimed at fostering a “missing middle” of housing in Sydney — townhouses, shop-top housing, low-rise apartments — bigger than free-standing homes, smaller than high rise apartments.
Opposition: The Minns government policy overrides input from local councils. Some councils, such as Mosman, have pushed against this, and attempted to negotiate with the state government to have a say in where the increased housing goes.
The NSW Liberal’s new housing policy proposes this as the standard approach: the state sets the housing goal, and local councils decide how it is achieved and where the housing goes.
What they said: Willoughby MP Tim James told the Lorikeet that under his party’s approach, “a local government area can effectively opt out of the top-down, blanket, one-size-fits-all, approach of the LMR policy, so long as they can demonstrate that they will meet their housing targets”.
If Mosman is an example to go by, the end result is packing housing in a small dense area — such as along Military Road — in order to prevent development throughout the rest of the LGA.
When asked whether, in his electorate of Willoughby, this would realistically mean more high-rises in Chatswood and less mid-rise development in the surrounding suburbs, James said “that would most likely be the outcome”.
When asked whether he disagreed with LMR housing policy, James said “there's a place for it, but it shouldn't be overwhelming, upsetting, significantly changing residential suburban areas that are not on heavy rail lines or metro lines”.
Why build? New South Wales is party to the National Housing Accord, which is an agreement between all levels of government and industry bodies to build 1.2 million new, well-located homes by 2029.
A 2025 report from the Grattan Institute identified restrictive planning controls as a “key driver” of Australia's housing shortage and of rising housing costs.