A man in a suit and tie stands indoors, holding a red RNZ microphone. He appears to be speaking or preparing to speak, with blurred figures and a wall in the background.
Wayne Brown says the latest housing climbdown has been forced on Chris Bishop by his colleagues.

Politicsabout 10 hours ago

Exclusive: Government to slash Auckland housing numbers again 

Senior writer
A man in a suit and tie stands indoors, holding a red RNZ microphone. He appears to be speaking or preparing to speak, with blurred figures and a wall in the background.
Wayne Brown says the latest housing climbdown has been forced on Chris Bishop by his colleagues.

The Spinoff has learned the government is to reduce the housing target for the country’s biggest city for a second time.

Just weeks after cutting back Auckland’s housing capacity plans, the government is set to slash them again, in the latest of a series of climbdowns aimed at staving off intensification in the city’s low-density, often wealthier suburbs.

Auckland Council was initially ordered to allow a minimum capacity of two million houses under a government plan for the city championed by housing minister Chris Bishop.

That was lowered to 1.6 million in mid-February after protests from residents in suburbs like Botany and Parnell, along with government ministers including Act leader and Epsom MP David Seymour.

Now The Spinoff has learned the government is set to reduce the housing target even further. 

Cabinet agreed yesterday to set a minimum housing capacity target for Auckland of 1.4 million, sources familiar with the plan said.

The existing Unitary Plan allows for roughly 900,000 homes, meaning more than half the additional capacity that would have been enabled under the new plan may now be cut.

However, it’s still unclear how much housing capacity Auckland Council will actually be able to get rid of below the 1.6 million threshold, and some politicians are vowing to fight any efforts to remove density from inner suburbs like Parnell and Remuera. 

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown believes the latest backdown has been forced on Bishop by Seymour, along with prime minister Christopher Luxon and Howick MP Simeon Brown.

“Bishop’s been done over by his own party and Act,” he says. 

The mayor is engaged in a long-running feud with Act, who he accuses of being “CAVEs” – constantly against virtually everything. 

He’s frustrated with the party’s opposition to a bed night levy, which would be used to fund concerts and sports events, and Seymour’s resistance to dense housing in Epsom.

“They don’t want any concerts in Auckland. They don’t want any sports events because they’re opposing the bed night levy. They don’t want people living intensively. They want us all to live in tents in Maungaturoto.”

An older man with gray hair and glasses stands at a podium surrounded by microphones, shrugging his shoulders. Two people stand behind him, and reporters hold out recording devices in a modern indoor setting.
Wayne Brown talks to reporters following the first of the government’s two housing backdowns.

Even under the government’s new plan, the council is bound by the National Policy Statement on Urban Development, which forces it to zone for apartments around train stations, busways and town centres.

Bishop has also pushed through legislation ordering the council to upzone to 15 storeys around key city rail link stations including Maungawhau, Kingsland and Morningside.

Some council sources believe that, put together, those pieces of legislation essentially mandate housing capacity of around 1.6 million no matter what minimum number the government sets.

Brown says he was fine with the original plan to zone for a capacity of two million houses and may try to go back to it if the government exerts more pressure to downzone in what he considers to be key areas for intensification, including Parnell and Epsom.

“Two million: I was happy enough with that. Just let the market sort itself out. Act is meant to be about the marketplace. They’re the most anti-marketplace outside of Russia,” he says.

Seymour was once more laissez faire about council zoning. In his book Birth of a Boom, he urged councils to allow people to open businesses or build housing in quiet suburban areas.

“Civic leaders need to do a very courageous thing. They need to do nothing, or almost nothing, in the field of urban planning,” he wrote, later adding that “if such a development was to irritate the dull and puritanical who currently enjoy the area’s sterility, all the better.”

The Spinoff has contacted Seymour and Bishop for comment.

Seymour is yet to respond. 

In a statement released after The Spinoff’s story was published, Bishop confirmed the new 1.4 million housing figure.

“Our expectation is that this revised capacity number finally brings consensus on this important issue. Aucklanders deserve certainty on this city-shaping plan change,” the statement says.

Bishop added that the council is likely to have to zone for 1.6 million homes anyway.

“Advice from officials estimates that capacity enabled by Plan Change 120 is still likely to be around 1.6 million homes once mandatory requirements under the National Policy Statement on Urban Development and upzoning around the City Rail Link are taken into account.”

Update, 11.15am: Housing minister Chris Bishop has released a statement confirming the government is cutting Auckland’s minimum housing capacity from 1.6 million to 1.4 million.

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