8. Housing Auckland—Building Consents and Urban Land UseDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Minister of FinanceHousing Auckland—Building Consents and Urban Land Use8. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement made yesterday in the Finance and Expenditure Committee that New Zealand is in the middle of its largest ever building boom"; if so how?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Finance): Yes I do. The value of building consents nationwide was $19 billion in 2016. That is the highest level ever recorded and it is 68 percent higher than in 2008. The number of people employed in the construction industry in this country is also the highest ever. At the end of December last year the household labour force survey recorded 242900 people employed in the construction industry; it has never been higher.David Seymour: Minister how can you stand by that statement when the actual number of dwellings consented per 1000 of population was 13.1 in 1974 8.3 in 2004 and last year only 6.2?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: With the greatest respect to the member he is asking a different question. He asked me whether this was the biggest building boom New Zealand has ever seen and quite obviously it is. David Seymour: Well I guess if inflation gets going it will solve the whole problem. Can I ask—another question ha ha!Mr SPEAKER: I have given the member the call.David Seymour: That is all right—that is all right. I wonder whether the Minister's Government will back the likes of Kathleen and Steve Vitasovich who would like to develop their land which is 3 minutes from a train station but outside Auckland's rural urban boundary; does he agree with the Productivity Commission that such boundaries are a "constraint on urban growth" reducing the supply of new housing?Mr SPEAKER: Two supplementary questions there—the Minister can address either or both.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The member's latest question will not get a cheer from Phil Twyford. Two points if I may: firstly in clarification to the member's rejoinder before he asked the question it is both in nominal and real terms that it is the biggest construction boom ever; to the second point in relation to the rural urban limit I do have great sympathy for the concerns of your example couple that you mentioned because that has been a very significant problem. If you look at the trend in availability of sections in New Zealand from the year 2000 through to now in Auckland the rural urban limit or what was then known as the metropolitan urban limit has greatly restricted the availability of sections over that period. That has been a cause of a reduction in available supply despite population increase which is now being addressed by a range of measures both by this Government and by Auckland Council. My view would be to encourage Auckland Council to speed up the availability of land and I am pleased that for example the Auckland Unitary Plan is making sure that there is more land available for building houses in that city.David Seymour: In light of that concern does the Minister agree with Local Government New Zealand president Hastings mayor and prospective National Party candidate Lawrence Yule who says that ACT's proposal of new fit for purpose urban land use planning laws is something that "warrants consideration"?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: There was some reasonably relevant information in that question but in regard to the overall question around planning legislation the member may be aware that the Productivity Commission is due to report back on those matters shortly. In terms of planning law the Government looks forward to that report-back because we have a round of Resource Management Act (RMA) reform in the House at the moment that will make significant differences and it is important to look to the longer term in terms of where you go next after that. In the meantime I would advise Phil Twyford who talks quite a big game but does not actually do anything to vote for the bill. David Seymour: In that case will the Minister also consider ACT's suggestion of central government sharing revenue with local government for infrastructure on the basis of their consenting activity—a suggestion that The New Zealand Initiative chairman Roger Partridge has described as "compelling"?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: In terms of the question rather than Mr Partridge's endorsement I think it is important to note that actually the Government makes a very big contribution to infrastructure in our cities and towns now for example in terms of paying for 50 percent of the roading costs of all roading in the local roading system through the petrol excise duty and road-user charges system and the National Land Transport Fund. The Government also makes very significant contributions through such matters as the Ultra-fast Broadband Initiative. So there are a number of ways in which we do that—and we also have the Housing Infrastructure Fund which is offering to do that for new subdivisions. So there is very very significant investment. In fact our total infrastructure investment around the country in this current year is expected to be around $7 billion—and I look at Minister Parata and I forgot to mention the very big investment in the education sector in schools."