Baby Boomers are primarily responsible for hostility toward housing growth and density, Planning Minister Rob Stokes says, accusing the generation of being the drivers of so-called NIMBYism.

The 'Not In My Back Yard' mindset, which is opposed to nearby development, sprung from an anti-growth mentality of the 1960s and 1970s, Mr Stokes said. Baby Boomers were "the largest cohort, I suppose, in NIMBYs and also an important cohort in decision-makers today", he said.

NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes has spoken about the challenges of providing good growth. Credit:Louise Kennerley

"When they were reaching their level of political activism and awakening was at a time in the 60s and 70s when growth was being challenged," Mr Stokes told the Good Growth Summit last week.

Speaking to developers, planning bureaucrats and community leaders, Mr Stokes said growth had become a concept to be suspected, resisted or treated with outright hostility.