Chris Bishop will be the ‘decision maker’ if councils and housing panels can’t agree
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Housing and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop says he will be the “decision maker” if councils and the Independent Hearing Panel do not agree on land zoning.
Speaking at a Wellington Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Bishop singled out the Wellington Independent Hearing Panel process as an example of where he could step in as the Minister Responsible for Resource Management Act Reform.
That would include where where the Wellington panel landed or any requests for time extentions, he said.
The panel’s report earlier this month found that allowing more high-rise buildings would not increase housing affordability, had been heavily criticised by economists who said it scoffed at economic consensus and went against the evidence.
Bishop said New Zealand was not short of land, but artificial constraints on its use had driven prices far higher than they should be.
“For example, each square metre of urban land at Auckland’s fringe costs 4.2 to 4.4 times more than nearby rural land. This zoning premium doubled between 2011 and 2021.”
There were similar examples in larger cities, other than Christchurch, Bishop said.
“These differentials are the product of artificial supply constraints due to restricted zoning in plans, delays and uncertainty due to resource consents, and infrastructure.
“The idea that zoning and land supply does not affect housing affordability is frankly nuts,” he said.
Cities that made it difficult to build more housing had more housing affordability problems, while those that legalised housing were more affordable, he said
Councils would be given flexibility to opt out of the Medium Density Residential Standards.
Under the coalition agreement with the ACT Party councils that had modified their plans to ratify their use of the standards. “In other words they will get a chance to have a look at them again if they can prove they have sufficient development capacity,” Bishop said.
“What we’re trying to do is strike the right balance between zoning for housing growth and flexibility for councils to decide how that growth happens.”
The standard’s tools were too blunt and one-size-fits all, and were met with considerable hostility from many councils and communities, he said.
“Councils have more discretion over where they have density, but they’re going to have more housing. In some cases that will mean more greenfields development, where the infrastructure costs can justify it. In other cases it will mean more density. In most places it will mean a combination of both.”