Housing Minister Chris Bishop will today reduce the controversial plan to allow for two million more homes under Auckland’s new planning rules.
One source says the new figure was 1.6 million, and includes adjustments in the central city.
Last month, Prime Minister Christopher 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.
The minister is giving a speech in Auckland at midday, where he is expected to focus intensification on the CBD, City Rail Link train stations and other main transport corridors, pull back from the suburbs, and unveil a lower housing target.
In a Herald column last month, 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.
Thousands of Aucklanders have weighed in on the Government’s mandated intensification plans for the city, which open the door to two million potential homes but tightens controls on building in flood‑prone areas.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told the Herald ahead of Bishop’s speech said “we’ve got to grow Auckland and make sure we have got affordable housing but Aucklanders have had some real and genuine concerns about intensification as proposed in the suburbs, and Bishop’s announcement of a significant reduction in the capacity will see intensification in the suburbs go away.
“What we want to see is more intensification in the CBD, over the transport hubs in the town centres like occurs in Sydney and other overseas cities.”
He described it as an important day for the Queen City.
“We have listened to Aucklanders. I have asked Chris Bishop to make changes. He will announce that today.
“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 the capacity was coming down significantly.
“It means intensification in the suburbs should go away,” Luxon said.
It was not just in his Botany electorate where there was feedback, but across all MPs in Auckland, particularly in suburban Auckland, getting feedback telling them to listen.
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, has 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.
Pro-housing Waitākere councillor Shane Henderson has 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 has 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 said 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 October, which also restricts development on about 12,000 properties identified as being at risk from flooding or landslides.
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