A NSW Liberal Government will restore the voice of local communities in how homes are delivered and targets met under a new Low and Mid Rise (LMR) Alternate Plan Pathway.

The announcement comes as the Minns Labor Government's flagship LMR policy continues to significantly underperform. The Government promised the policy would deliver 112,000 homes over five years, yet as of February 2026 only 4,900 homes had been approved under the scheme; just 22 per cent of where the policy should have been two years into its rollout.

Under the proposal, councils would be able to submit an alternate housing delivery plan that meets or exceeds their existing LMR housing allocation. Any proposal would be independently assessed and certified by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.

In practice, this means:

• The same, or a greater, number of homes built, so housing targets are protected, not watered down.
• Councils get a genuine, formal way to design better outcomes for the community rather than a rigid one-sized fit all approach of the current LMR.
• If a council does nothing, the existing LMR settings simply continue to apply.
• Existing development applications already in the system are not affected.

Member for Willoughby Tim James said we need to build more homes in our local community, but good planning means listening to local voices.

"People in Willoughby should be part of planning where homes go in our community. This alternate approach is about respecting local knowledge while still delivering local housing targets.”

“The blanket, one-size-fits-all LMR approach, which draws arbitrary circles around our train stations and some local centres such as Northbridge, Cremorne and Neutral Bay, is no way to do proper planning. This alternative will empower our local communities to determine and plan the areas where growth can best be accommodated.”