Plans refined by monitoring and reporting

As the relevant strategic planning authority, the Greater Sydney Commission is responsible for monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the Plan. This will be done in three ways:

• Performance: indicators that measure the delivery of the vision and Objectives of the Plan
• Context: ongoing analysis of growth and change factors impacting land use and infrastructure planning which provide a context for the indicators
• Actions: progress on implementation of the Actions in the Plan by State agencies and local government.

Measuring outcomes provides accountability in the delivery of the Objectives of the Plan. As the delivery of these Objectives involves many stakeholders and may rely on local planning and agency programs, the establishment of indicators would best be informed by the involvement of stakeholders. This will also enable consistency in monitoring and efficiencies in reporting.

Learning from monitoring is a key factor in the ongoing review of any plan. A key consideration is to set up monitoring that is most beneficial for all stakeholders. How a region grows and changes can be masked by reporting over wide areas, as it can average out factors that may be very different when viewed at a local government level.

Therefore, as discussed below, it is proposed that the development of the monitoring framework should include local government input, particularly the requirement of councils to monitor their local strategic planning statement.

Performance indicators

The approach to monitoring performance responds to recent changes to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, following commencement of the draft Greater Sydney Region Plan exhibition, which creates an opportunity to consider a comprehensive monitoring, reporting and evaluation framework that recognises existing reporting requirements.

The amendments require a clear line of sight between regional and district plans, the new local strategic planning statement and local environmental plans. The amendments also link the local strategic planning statement and planning proposals/local environmental plans to the requirements for councils' community strategic plans under the Local Government Act 1993. Monitoring and reporting on implementation is required for the region plan, district plans and local strategic planning statements.

The concurrent development of A Metropolis of Three Cities, Future Transport Strategy 2056 and State Infrastructure Strategy 2018-2038 also provide the opportunity to identify performance indicators that can inform whole-of-government understanding of the delivery of the Plan.

It is envisaged that a core group of indicators reported at a local, district, city and regional level could provide a framework for local circumstances to be identified. Indicators will be established for each of the 10 Directions that can best measure the outcomes set out in the Objectives of the Plan, and provide overarching coordination whilst allowing for local understanding (refer to Table 7).

The Greater Sydney Commission is also responsible for providing support on the implementation of the region and district plans to councils. Leading the development of integrated performance indicators will be a key way the Commission will support implementation.

Context

The preparation of A Metropolis of Three Cities was informed by an understanding of the characteristics of growth and change. Key social, economic and environmental data is set out in the Greater Sydney Commission's website in Productivity, Liveability and Sustainability Profiles which help inform the basis for the Plan. Key data sources include the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census and the NSW Department of Planning and Environment's population, household and dwelling demand data used across the NSW Government.

Monitoring context is consistent with the Australian Government's National Cities Performance Framework. The framework includes context indicators of the characteristics that help inform an understanding of what a city is like and how it functions and provides comparisons to other cities.

The Greater Sydney Commission's website includes information to support the ongoing analysis of growth and change in Greater Sydney and links to a range of original data sources and reports. The analysis will provide the context for indicators on the performance of the Plan and include:

• Infrastructure and Collaboration - analysing the impacts of changing factors in prioritising and delivering new and renewed major infrastructure.
• Liveability - analysing the impacts on liveability of changing factors in population, demographics, household and housing markets, and land use strategies.
• Productivity - analysing the impacts on productivity of changing factors in jobs growth, industry sectors, technologies, and work practices.
• Sustainability - analysing the impacts on sustainability of changing factors in resilience, hazards, technological advances, resource management and environmental policies.

The collection of more detailed data is required to better inform housing and employment analysis. Monitoring housing types, mix and affordability is an important part of delivering housing diversity. Much of this data will come from council housing strategies that will be developed to identify 6-10 year housing targets.

A deeper understanding of employment sectors is to also be developed. This has three main components.

For industrial and urban services land an expansion of the NSW Department of Planning and Environment's Employment Lands Program will be informed by the review of the industrial and urban services land in the Central City District, on issues such as demand, mix and density of jobs, and the pipeline and characteristics of zoned and serviced land (refer to Objective 23).

Regular monitoring of retail activity in Greater Sydney would help inform the development and implementation of retail policy being prepared by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment. This would identify trends based on the data established in 2015 providing updates on current supply, projected demand as well as changing characteristics in the retail sector (refer to Objective 22).

In Greater Sydney the majority of standalone office development is located across nine commercial office precincts. Commercial office precincts have a range of employment sectors with different requirements. Monitoring would include consideration of all types of commercial office activities from global company headquarters to growing start-ups. Improving the understanding of the factors influencing supply and demand for office development would lead to more informed land use policies which could enable greater choice for business to locate across Greater Sydney.