Maharey defends housing plans

Housing Minister Steve Maharey is dampening calls for Housing New Zealand to stop higher density housing in Glen Innes becoming a dumping ground for its poorest and most socially troubled clients.

Residents in the predominantly state suburb of Glen Innes are horrified at plans for higher density housing, fearing it will be a social disaster, bring more crime and reduce private property values.

"Why has our area been chosen to accommodate such undesirable tenants.

"We do not want scum around here," said Glen Innes resident Glenys Carter in a submission on Auckland City Council's "Liveable Communities" plan to re-zone large areas of the suburb for three- and four-storey housing.

Housing New Zealand owns 65 per cent of the properties in the redevelopment zone.

Deputy Mayor Dr Bruce Hucker accused Housing NZ of failing to provide a mix of state tenants at its Talbot Park trial intensification project.

It had given priority to A and B clients, who are most at risk or in serious need of housing, he said.

Dr Hucker said Housing NZ needed to understand the implications of the policy for local communities like Glen Innes and the need for a "responsible allocation policy" to provide a sense of place and a sense of community.

The council would raise the issue with Mr Maharey and the Housing NZ board after making no progress at officer level, he said.

Mr Maharey said he was happy to discuss Housing NZ's allocation policy with the council.

"We have a social allocation model based on need and therefore we would need to work this through extremely carefully because the criticism would be for Housing NZ not to allocate houses on the basis of need," he said.

Asked if there could be some flexibility on the allocation policy, Mr Maharey said he would not commit himself to that at this time and before he had discussed the matter with the council.

"It is certainly our aim to be good neighbours ... we want to maintain a good mix of people and housing."

Mr Maharey said there were challenges in place like Glen Innes where Housing NZ had a high stock of houses built in the 1950s and 1960s.

"We don't want to sell stock. There is very little available land for us to work with in the Auckland region and we are under enormous pressure to get more housing," Mr Maharey said.

One of themes among the 586 submissions on the Glen Innes plan was for Housing NZ to sell some of its property to create a better mix of public and private ownership.

Meanwhile, Metrowater has confirmed that a considerable amount of work needs to be done to upgrade the existing stormwater and sewage systems in Glen Innes and provide new capacity to cope with higher density housing.

A Metrowater spokeswoman said the council-owned business planned to start fixing problems of illegal stormwater connections to the wastewater system and groundwater seepage into the wastewater system.

Metrowater planned to spend between $3 million and $5 million from next year on these problems in Glen Innes, western bays and eastern beaches.

The company estimated it would cost $60 million for new water and wastewater services from higher density housing, recovered by a network upgrade charge on developers.

* 11,754 people were on Housing New Zealand's waiting list at the end of March

* 6435 were in Auckland

* 2636 were high priority clients.