Nats reveal housing election policy

The National Party will force councils in major towns and cities to zone for 30 years’ worth of growth immediately, housing spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

‘‘None of this pick n mix, here’s a bit here, here’s a bit in five years,’’ Bishop said on television’s Q+A programme yesterday. ‘‘They have to put 30 years of growth into the market right now to create abundant development opportunities to drive down the cost of land, both at our city fringe but also inside our cities to make housing more affordable.’’

The ACT Party is calling National’s plan a ‘‘complicated version’’ of its own policy, while the Green Party said it was ‘‘confused and rushed’’ and would further worsen inequality.

National would give councils the ability to opt-out of the medium density residential zone law, ‘‘however central government will reserve powers to ensure councils set aside enough land to meet demand targets’’.

National and Labour teamed up in 2021 to allow buildings of up to three storeys on most sites in cities without any need for resource consent.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon said his party was ‘‘wrong’’ when his now deputy leader, Nicola Willis, joined the Government for a bi-partisan commitment to greater housing intensification.

Bishop said if National was in Government, it would still support the National Policy Statement on Urban Development allowing for density and transport corridors and also promised to introduce a $1 billion fund for councils to incentivise new housing.

‘‘This is a policy that will make councils go for growth.

‘‘If they don’t, central government, as in a National Government, will rezone that land for them,’’ Bishop said.

‘‘Our $1b build-for-growth fund will mean local communities and councils will share in the benefits of housing growth.

‘‘National’s plan means that for every house delivered above the five-year average in a council area, the council will receive $25,000.’’

Green Party urban development spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said National was ‘‘terribly confused’’.

‘‘On the one hand they acknowledge the benefits of more homes along rapid transit corridors and want to protect farmland. On the other hand, they are also pushing ad hoc greenfields development – which results in loss of productive farmland and housing that is disconnected from community and infrastructure.

‘‘This causes high transport costs for families and worse traffic.’’

ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden said the Labour and National housing policy to overrule council zoning with the three-three housing rule was ‘‘always silly’’.

‘‘Pepper potting development won’t get more homes built faster, just in different places that are harder for councils to service,’’ she said.

‘‘The right answer is to leave planning to councils, incentivise them to allow development by sharing GST on construction, then streamline the many unnecessary regulatory barriers to building within areas that are already zoned for development.

‘‘What National now proposes is a complicated version of this policy.’’

National did not inform Labour it would be moving away from the housing agreement.

Bishop said ‘‘ any degree of bipartisanship from Megan

Woods certainly went out the window straightaway’’, referring to National not being informed about giving Auckland Council a one-year extension and sending a Crown observer into Christchurch.

‘‘We have our own policy,’’ Bishop said. ‘‘The National Party has its own agenda for government. We are putting our own policies on the table and if we are elected, we will consider ourselves to have a mandate to implement them and we will do so.’’

In 2021, Willis, Housing Minister Megan Woods, and then National Party leader Judith Collins held a joint news conference to announce a united approach to support housing intensification.

The parties unveiled a bill which would streamline the process for developers wanting to build medium density housing in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. That bill passed into law, with the support of every party except ACT.

The new rules made it harder for councils to object to developers building higher density housing, by removing their ability to set height limits of less than 11 metres. This meant threestorey homes could be built in city suburbs.

The new regulations were designed to increase housing supply. Some councils and existing homeowners criticised the law over concerns it would ruin suburban character or block out the sun and existing views.

‘‘None of this pick n mix, here’s a bit here, here’s a bit in five years.’’

Chris Bishop

National Party housing spokesperson