The Government has announced sweeping changes to housing densification, with dwelling capacity in Auckland being slashed to 1.6 million homes, from the current two million.
But the Housing Minister’s big speech was hijacked by a serial heckler who criticised the Government over the state of housing in South Auckland.
Because of the Government’s changes, announced today, Auckland Council will now be asked to review the city’s housing plan and remove suburbs or areas where it does not want blanket intensification to occur.
However, housing density will go ahead near transport hubs and rail corridors, and the Government will also legislate to enable more housing development in the CBD.
The Herald first reported exclusively on Thursday morning that Housing Minister Chris Bishop was due to slash the number of potential homes under the plan.
In a speech to the Committee for Auckland, Bishop said “today’s announcement is a confident step forward on increasing housing capacity in Auckland”.
Bishop said the two million housing figure had become “a red herring that transformed into a lightning rod”.
“We heard Aucklanders’ feedback, and we have answered.”
He said “softening” the housing capacity requirement struck an appropriate balance between those Aucklanders concerned about densification, and those who wished to see more growth.
The changes would also mean more flexibility and increased capacity in Auckland’s city centre, where the Government wanted to unlock greater housing density.
“Enabling more growth in the city centre will unlock productivity and increase the benefits of CRL [City Rail Link] even further,” Bishop said.
Cabinet has agreed to undertake an investigation into planning provisions, with regulations to be made under the Resource Management Act to enable more central housing development.
Bishop said the intention was to include any additional housing in central Auckland within the lowered 1.6 million-dwelling capacity number.
He said the focus was on growth of a rapid transport network, giving people more choice in where they live and on a more productive economy.
“Together, these changes announced today will provide Auckland Council greater flexibility to respond to the feedback of Aucklanders and tackle our housing crisis.”
Although the plan change process falls under central Government, current submissions would be considered by the council through the standard process, which would be finalised sometime next year, Bishop said.
The Government would now await a summary from Auckland Council of how the zones will change before legislating.
Vision NZ candidate Karl Mokaraka, who once famously interrupted the Prime Minister during an election campaign stand-up, interrupted Bishop mid-speech.
The Destiny Church-linked aspiring politician started addressing Bishop about the housing crisis in South Auckland and made references to Bishop living in Wellington.
He was allowed to speak for a short time about the housing issues that South Aucklanders faced.
He said people live in poverty there while people, like the minister, living in Wellington weren’t aware of their hardship.
Bishop listened to Mokaraka briefly before telling him they could discuss the matter later over a cup of tea.
Bishop made the announcement during a speech at the new International Convention Centre. You can watch it at the top of this story.
“It’s an important day. We have listened to Aucklanders. I have asked Chris Bishop to make changes. He will announce that today,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told the Herald.
“We have done our part in reducing the capacity. Now it’s back to the council to ensure the intensification occurs in the right places.”
Asked about the feedback he had received in his electorate of Botany, Luxon said the council went through a submission process and “it was very clear Aucklanders didn’t like what was happening and being proposed in the suburbs, and that is completely reasonable in my view, and the capacity was coming down significantly”.
“It means intensification in the suburbs should go away,” he said.
Luxon said it was not just in his Botany electorate where there was feedback, but all MPs in Auckland, particularly in suburban Auckland, got feedback, with people telling them to listen.
Last August, Auckland Council proposed a major housing plan, which opened the door to two million potential homes but tightened controls on building in flood‑prone areas.
The proposed changes were a response to a new framework for urban development in Auckland being established by Bishop.
Thousands of Aucklanders weighed in on the intensification plans.
At a packed public meeting in Luxon’s Botany electorate last December, there were calls for the Government to pull back the two million housing figure, with Howick councillor Bo Burns saying that not only people in East Auckland were alarmed, but in other National strongholds like Ōrākei, Mt Eden and Franklin.
Former National Cabinet minister Maurice Williamson, who is now a city councillor for the Howick Ward, had warned that the issues were leading to public anger and would cost National votes at November’s general election.
“This cannot stand. They simply have to change the two million number,” he said.
Then last month, Luxon and Bishop announced that the Government would water down densification rules, with Bishop stating that the Government was weighing a range of options for the housing capacity targets.
In a Herald column last month prior to Bishop and Luxon announcing the change of tack, political columnist Matthew Hooton said a U-turn was intended to deny Act, New Zealand First and Labour a potent issue on which to raid the blue vote at this year’s election.
Hooton wrote that National strategists had realised the two million figure had become a lightning rod for criticism.
Pro-housing Waitākere councillor Shane Henderson earlier urged the Government to stick with the process underway, and the Coalition for More Homes has expressed deep concern at the Government backtracking on Plan Change 120, which the council had prepared for the new planning rules.
Spokesman Scott Caldwell said any pulling back on the two million figure would compromise Auckland’s housing affordability.
Mayor Wayne Brown believed the Government had to be careful when making changes to the planning rules, which could put the process back to square one.
Intensification plans for Auckland date back to 2021 when the Labour Government, with National’s support, introduced the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS). These rules allowed up to three dwellings, three storeys high, on most residential sections in Auckland, a policy widely known as the “3 x 3″ rule.
The council introduced Plan Change 78 in 2022 to implement the MDRS, but scrapped it last year after agreeing to Bishop’s alternative approach, which focuses on intensification along transport corridors while still providing capacity for the same number of homes – estimated at two million.
That decision paved the way for Plan Change 120, introduced last year, which also restricts development on about 12,000 properties identified as being at risk from flooding or landslides.
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