Anti-Special Housing Area petition 'ill-informed' - Housing Minister

Housing Minister Nick Smith. Photo / Nick Smith

A bid to stop a high-density housing development in South Auckland is "ill-informed" and will not be considered, Housing Minister Nick Smith says.

A 4000-signature petition was presented to Labour MP Su'a William Sio on Parliament's steps this afternoon by two members of Save our Unique Land (SOUL).

The group opposed plans for a Special Housing Area (SHA) in Oruarangi Road, Mangere.

There are plans to build 480 houses on the 33-hectare block of farmland, which is next to the Otuataua Stonefields.

Mr Sio said the Government had no right to use the housing crisis as an excuse to destroy a site which had heritage value to mana whenua.

He said the group wanted a housing solution that was affordable and protected the sacred grounds on the neighbouring land.

But Dr Smith said the petitioners' concerns had already been considered and dismissed in an Environment Court decision.

"There are no grounds of which that Special Housing Area status could lawfully be undone and that is why the petition is ill-informed," he said.

The SHAs are the Government's main tool for increasing housing supply.

They were introduced in late 2013 as part of a deal with Auckland Council to grant consents for 39,000 houses by 2016.

More than 100 SHAs have been created so far, most of them in Auckland, though only a small number of houses have been completed.

Mr Sio said the petitioners were also raising questions about the affordability of the proposed development.

"So far new houses recently built on Coronation Road, Mangere Bridge are asking for $836,000. At those prices there is no way a working family earning from $20,000 to $60,000 is ever going to afford to buy or rent these new houses."

The Government has previously committed to building a proportion of the houses in SHAs in an affordable range.