Face of the Day

Housing Minister Chris Bishop says there is a “pragmatic and sensible” solution to housing intensification plans for Auckland as the government considers watering down controversial planning rules that would allow for two million homes to be built over the coming decades.

Bishop says “some tweaks and finessing” of the super city target were underway with a decision expected in the “next month or so”.

Earlier this month, political columnist Matthew Hooton revealed in a column for the Herald that the government was planning to U-turn on changes it had made to Auckland densification rules (called Plan Change 120) which would allow for the two million potential homes to be developed with greater density and building heights in some inner-city suburbs.

It was a sensitive issue that could spook potentially blue voters who do not want “apartment blocks to be built on either side of their homes, without even the infrastructure investment to support them”.

Hooton said any U-turn would be a win for National “since it denies ACT, New Zealand First and Labour a potent issue on which to raid the blue vote”.

NZ Herald