Smith NickHOUSING LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Housing): I move That the Housing Legislation Amendment Bill be now read a first time. This bill is about ensuring a smooth transition to the Auckland Unitary Plan it is about extending the tool box of special housing areas to regional New Zealand and it is about making the law clear in respect of Government housing programmes on publicly owned land. I do find it ironic that members of the Labour Opposition who over the adjournment have been crying for a state of emergency over the issue of housing are now saying no they do not want to vote on a bill that will make a material difference.This bill builds on the very substantive work of the Productivity Commission. In 2012 its report concluded overwhelmingly that our land-use planning system was at the core of New Zealand's issues in respect of housing. I note that since 1990 the increase in house land costs in Auckland has gone up by 350 percent compared with inflation of 71 percent and building costs of 78 percent. Those figures make very plain that it is the issue of land-use planning that is at the core of the challenges around housing affordability in Auckland.There was a huge dysfunctionality between the regional council and the district and city councils in Auckland which were not able to agree on whether Auckland should go up or out and so the very first and important step we made as a Government was to merge Auckland into a single council and require it to develop a single plan. The process of writing a plan for the city of Auckland would normally take a period of 7 or 8 years noting that it would be the largest plan in New Zealand's history covering over 500000 properties. It is actually a tribute to Mayor Len Brown; his deputy Penny Hulse; the independent hearings panel; and the Auckland Council that they have successfully concluded that process and that next Friday Auckland will have a new plan one that succeeds rules that were written more than 20 years ago.We walked a fine line in the legislation between ensuring that process occurred as quickly as possible and also ensuring people had a fair say and we determined that in the interim housing could not stand still. That is why we made provision for special housing areas. There are 154 of those that have been approved and 1342 houses were built and completed by the end of June. There are 2208 building consents that have been approved and resource consents for 6700 sections have been approved. It is interesting to note that in the 12 months there would have been no growth in the number of residential consents and new homes built were it not for the 1100 that came through the special housing areas process. That pipeline is growing as evidenced by the fact that in the first year it was 6 percent in the second year it was 9 percent and it is now 14 percent. Next year it is scheduled to be over 20 percent and for the year following 30 percent.That brings me to the key provisions that are provided for in this bill. The first issue is around transitioning from those special housing areas over to the new Auckland Unitary Plan. Of those 154 special housing areas there are eight for which there is doubt as to whether the plan-change process will be concluded by next Thursday. Without this bill—Grant Robertson: When did you find out? Why has it taken you this long?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: —those 8000 homes would not be able to progress. Mr Robertson interjects—when did we know that? Well actually we still do not absolutely know because there are independent hearings panels that are independent and are currently considering housing in those areas. Equally so we did not know until the unitary plan process was complete because we did not know what areas had been zoned as residential.What this bill does is ensure that those 8000 homes can proceed. I note that these provisions have the very strong support of the Auckland Council. I would say to members of this House: if you are genuinely concerned about housing issues in Auckland why would we send those eight significant developments—for 8000 homes—back to the beginning of the process?When we brought the special housing areas process to Parliament it was very controversial—there was concern in local government. What is interesting is that I have had a number of letters from councils around the country like Queenstown—and my meetings last week in the Bay of Plenty and meetings in Christchurch—and also in areas such as Auckland and my own constituency where local governments recognise the pressures around housing that they now have in their areas. Although they are supportive of the Government's additional programmes of work—the Resource Management Act reforms the National Policy Statement on Urban Development the urban development authority—they want to make progress now and they want the tools of the special housing area Act extended.That is the second part of this bill which will enable those accords to be extended in order for local government and central government to work together on providing additional housing supply and have access to those fast-track methods for bringing in new housing supply. In amending that special housing areas legislation the only change in the provision is to put extra pressure on the landowner and require that plan changes and resource consents are lodged within 12 months. There is a further minor amendment to simply make the process less bureaucratic and allow those identified special housing areas to be divided by a plan and plan description rather than just a description of the title specifically.The third and final issue that is covered in this bill is the issue of the Housing Act and the way in which it is able to bring new houses on stream. That is important. The biggest housing development in New Zealand is in Hobsonville which is former defence land. If we look at the Weymouth development which I think every member of this House would say is a great initiative—it was the first special housing area—it also is surplus Crown land. The difficulty is that Governments for generations have assumed that when there is a housing development under the Housing Act it will not trigger the offer-back provisions. How do we know that? Because Governments and Ministers—on Labour's side of the House; on this side of the House—whenever they have sold properties coming from such developments have not triggered those offer-back provisions. The clear advice is that it was never intended that the offer-back provisions would apply where there is a housing development under the Housing Act. This bill provides clarity in that area of law and it is important to Weymouth and it is important to Hobsonville because it provides the certainty that we are able to partner with the private sector and ensure that we continue to grow that important pipeline of new housing.Every member of this House knows that there is pressure on housing. The truth is that New Zealand's population is growing faster than at any time in our history. That is because people are voting with their feet—there is confidence in New Zealand and confidence in this Government—but equally that puts an onus on us to ensure that we build as many houses as we can and remove any legislative or bureaucratic impediment to more houses being built. That is why I challenge every member of this House to support new houses more houses for New Zealanders. This bill this urgency is a test as to whether members want to play politics or whether they want to support more houses being built for Kiwi families.