Source: ACT Party
ACT is welcoming the end of Labour’s compulsory intensification rules as the Government announces new plans to implement housing growth targets and free up land.
This is how ACT makes the Government better. The mad Labour-National plan to zone every section in major cities for three three-storey houses is dead. Instead, councils will need to show thirty years of future housing supply where it makes sense.
Sanity has returned to housing policy only after encouragement from ACT. This will be a huge relief for many. Councils up and down the country were rejecting the law, and now we’re giving them back control over what happens in their community.
The cost of housing is one of the greatest barriers to flourishing in New Zealand. Families are competing for too few homes, paying too much in rent and too much in mortgages, and are forced to settle for poor-quality housing in places they don’t want to live. If we don’t solve our housing crisis, we risk a generation looking offshore for the hope of a secure future.
With ACT in Government, we’re restoring the hope and aspiration of young New Zealanders to find a place to call home with a little hard work and saving.
Instead of pushing rules on councils that favour triple blocks of three-story townhouses, the plan now frees up undeveloped land and sets targets for councils to zone for more housing. It gives councils flexibility to deliver more homes while respecting existing residents who may not want a three-storey building a metre from their boundary.
ACT understands that housing development isn’t just held back by land use rules, but by a lack of instrastructure. New housing development must be supported with roads and pipes and wires, so our coalition agreement commits to replacing the Resource Management Act to get the big stuff built, and instituting long-term city and regional infrastructure deals, allowing PPPs, tolling and value capture rating to fund infrastructure.
