The Space To Make Dreams Come True: Why Labour’s Latest Move On Housing Could Be A Ground-Breaker

By
Chris Trotter
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39
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PHIL TWYFORD has urged the National Government to rule Auckland’s contentious Urban Growth Boundary out of the city’s Unitary Plan. This is a major policy announcement from Labour’s housing spokesperson. By embracing the virtues of expansion over intensification, the party has repositioned itself as a defender of Auckland’s characteristic urban sprawl – and everything that goes with it. That Twyford’s announcement prompted congratulatory media releases from the National Party, Business New Zealand and the Taxpayer’s Union is a measure of just how big a concession Labour has made.

Labour should not, however, be condemned simply because in some respects (and only in some) its housing policies are similar to the Right’s. Politically-speaking, the policy of urban intensification was as impractical as it was controversial. Homeowners were always going to balk at the prospect of multi-storeyed apartment buildings sprouting up in their leafy streets. Overruling those objections would have required a degree of heavy-handedness quite foreign to the New Zealand scene. Those deemed responsible – be they local or national politicians – would have paid a heavy price.

Policy-wise, Labour now has room to breathe. It also, quite literally, has the space to display some progressive creativity. By sanctioning green-field (as opposed to brown-field) housing development, Twyford and his colleagues are now free to draw forth from Labour’s honourable past the sort of planning ideas which, had they been implemented at the time they were developed (the late-1940s) would have made Auckland a much easier city in which to live and move around.

Seventy years on, however, with the population of Auckland approaching two million, the size of the planning canvass has expanded considerably. Looking forward, we must now envisage an urban corridor extending all the way from Hamilton to Whangarei.

A conurbation of this size cannot be serviced efficiently by the automobile. Crucial to its success would be the creation of a state-of-the-art rapid-rail network capable of whisking commuters from Hamilton to Downtown Auckland in 30 minutes. (If that seems impossible, just have a word with the French and the Chinese!) The huge enabling power of such a network would be more than sufficient to underwrite the many housing developments along its length.

Rather than leave the design and construction of these new communities to the private sector, Labour should promote the creation of a public design and construction entity dedicated to building homes, apartments and community facilities equal to anything currently on display in Germany and Scandinavia.

This massive public construction programme (which would not only encompass the building of houses and apartment buildings, but also the new rapid-rail network) would need to be accompanied by a radical reform of New Zealand’s tenancy laws. Only by, once again, making the State the nation’s pre-eminent – and most accommodating – landlord will New Zealanders enjoy access to well-designed and healthy homes, with full security of tenure, at an affordable rent.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

On RNZ’s “Morning Report”, this morning (18/5/16) Max Rashbrooke and James Crow spoke to Guyon Espiner about the urgent need for 20,000 new homes – just to meet the needs of this country’s homeless families. Many of these families reside in Auckland, and neither their needs, nor the needs of the tens-of-thousands of New Zealand and immigrant families who intend to make the Auckland Region their home, will ever be adequately met by the existing, market-driven, system – which daily demonstrates its incapacity.

By abandoning the Urban Growth Boundary, Labour has given itself both the physical and intellectual space in which to prove that it still knows how to make New Zealanders dreams come true.

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39 COMMENTS

  2. It’s all delusional nonsense.

    Forty years of failure to address the crucial issues of the times -overpopulation, overconsumption, the peaking and subsequent decline of essential resources, and the maintenance of the environment- have created a shocking mess that cannot be fixed by anyone, and certainly not any of the business-as-usual politicians who dominate the political arena.

    Out-of-control emissions, coral reefs dying, poisoned oceans, unprecedented heatwaves, raging forest fires, floods, collapse of nation states, collapse of fiat currencies and ice melting like never before……and all the ‘idiots’ want to do is make everything worse faster.

    As of today there is 1.4 million km2 less Arctic ice than normal and it is melting fast: a ‘blue ocean’ threshold will be crossed very soon, perhaps this northern summer, followed by massive sea level rise that makes SH1 and an awful lot of land in and around Auckland doomed to inundation in a matter of a decade or two.

    http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

    • At least you get it!

      Presently, that was last year, Auckland Council and Watercare presented evidence before the PAUP Independent Hearing Panel, that stated clearly, there are only sufficient water resources for another 45,000 households in Auckland.

      Since 2012/13 Auckland Council is trying to convince the Waikato Regional Council to allow its CCO Watercare to take another significant amount of water (200 million litres per day on top of so far allowed 150 million) from the Waikato River, to provide for a growing population. According to Council here, and the Auckland Plan and the now considered PAUP, they expect another 400,000 households in Auckland and up to a million new Auckland residents by the early or mid 2040s.

      Without the Waikato Water, in future likely to be less well filled with water, Auckland does NOT even have the water to supply the growing population.

      https://hearings.aupihp.govt.nz/online-services/new/files/sd2NNmClrCbMvEizgzVp8WGFXEOczKfvrwSdSBARSoMs

      From the evidence by David Blow, Watercare, dated 08.09.2015:

      “7.9 When planning for growth, Watercare takes direction from Auckland Council. Key strategic documents that set out the direction for growth include: the Auckland Plan, Local Area Plans and the RPS. Watercare has assessed the available spare capacity within the existing water and wastewater networks and has identified that it currently has capacity for 45,000 additional dwellings throughout the city. This current capacity is designed to support targeted
      growth and development in given areas.”

      Talk about “planning”, the left hand does not know what the right hand does in all this!

      • He may have been wrong on some other predictions, he is on the spot on this one topic.

  4. How populous is the city of Melbourne ?…I ask this because another poster on TDB mentioned the same city.

    That city has a population of : 4,442,918 data taken in 2014.approx

    New Zealand’s is currently : 4, 544 , 355 ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” 2016. approx

    I’ve always said NZ’s population is about the size of many medium/large overseas city’s… and they only have a mayor and council running them…

    Then I look at NZ.

    Hmmmm. Change subject.

    Despite our mutual ego stroking about punching above our own weight , we really aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer… at least in common sense observations at times…

    Uuuuummmmm…. how do I put this kindly…

    Perhaps the best way to explain it is… unless we want to swing hammocks from every tree in the Waitakere Ranges, … and house our populations there… we really are stuck with only two options…

    We either build upwards or outwards… or a combination thereof…

    Which, with the neo liberal emphasis on importing cheap labour , means we need to plan where we are going to put everybody… and despite the fact Auckland has always been a bit precarious in the housing front… the neo liberals have had 32 years to have a wee think about it.

    For a long time there NZ was at near zero population growth.

    Soooooo… what does this mean logically?… that’s right… houses. And where are we gonna put those lil ole houses?

    That’s right – North and South. And assuming the nimby’s have their way,.. that means we don’t build upwards we build outwards… or buy in a few hundred thousand cheap hammocks from a sweat shop in Asia somewhere.

    I guess alluding back to the Melbourne example … why hasn’t this been thought out and well planned years and years ago ? Did it take Canberra to have to constantly intervene to get some action in basic common sense decisions for future planning for growth in Melbourne?

    Or is it the constant infighting in local and central govt over petty self interests that is the problem here?

    Is that the difference between the Scandinavians and us?

    My point is simply that yes – all kudo’s to Phil Twyford , and good show old chap to the idea of a fast mono rail and aesthetically pleasing yet practically designed new area’s for greater Auckland with an eye to efficiency and environmentally friendly modes of transport… and yes this may even be a strong point of policy for Labour for the upcoming elections…

    But this is NOT Scandinavia and it isn’t even Melbourne.

    This is NZ where homeless people sleep under bridges, whole family’s sleep in cars, pay $400 / week to live in a garage, sleep in tents during the winter and count themselves lucky if they can live in a caravan .

    I’m sure thousands of decent folk would scream ” Lets do it !!!” ” Now !!!” in total unanimity to the ideas you’ve outlined. But judging by the past track record of successive waves of neo liberals in both local and central govt – and particularly this current lot?…

    I wouldn’t be holding your breath too long for any visionary solutions or sudden philanthropic pangs of conscience from this pack of political dullards … Whose greed is only surpassed by their sense of self entitlement to other peoples money.

    As we grimly await the next news media story’s of the next children who will die this winter from common communicable and TOTALLY treatable ailments simply because they are forced to live in poverty and substandard conditions.

    • Ooooh . A Thinker has ris. ( In my humble opinion ) Well Done @ Wild Katipo.

      Until recently, I used to own a post office building. It was built at a cost of 2100 pounds and the build was completed in July 1911. It was built in the small town of Kaitangata in South Otago, now a settlement of 800 or so hardy souls who show no fear.
      My building was built of brick and timbers sailed down from the North by coastal traders as dunnage in exchange for coal. It’s a huge building with a four bedroom Post Masters residence upstairs while down stairs was the stately public Post and telegraph offices.
      Why am I telling you this story ?
      People, back then, who decided to invest public money in public works and infrastructure in such seemingly far flung agricultural hinterlands had an eye on their, and our, future. They knew there was going to be a rowdy and rude explosion in populations in those rural areas because agriculture was to be NZ’s wonderful future. NZ is a land which can grow virtually any kind of thing year round. Better still, we invented refrigerated shipping so giving us a market advantage only dreamed of to supply Europe, Asia and the Americas. Such was the confidence in our agricultural future money was spent on infrastructure, like my building. And rail, and roading and hydro and shipping ports etc.
      What no one, who wasn’t a criminal, could have imagined was the rise of the lazy swindler. Those few who knew tricks and scams and could smilingly shake a mans hand while stabbing him in the back .
      NZ was such a wealthy little country that we became too complacent and took our eye off the crooks but worse still, we stopped maintaining our democratic responsibilities. The crooks must have felt like ferrets on a blind hen farm as vast quantities of foreign exchange would have come flooding in. Billions of pounds and dollars would have come by NZ to be siphoned off, never to be seen again.
      I believe it’s because of the Great Historic Swindle that our current politicians must always make it look like were struggling to survive lest the cat get out of the bag.
      ( I know. Sounds a bit mad right? )
      NZ. Land area comparable to the UK.
      UK . Population 60 million.
      NZ . Population 4.3 million.
      NZ. Not a shabby country by any standards. Rich soils, lots of lovely fresh water, sub tropics in the North, temperates in the South, vast oceans full of fishes.
      4.3 million people.
      But yet we have no money and we have poor souls living like refugees in cities that don’t earn our essential export revenue yet have some of the highest real estate values in the world.

      Ah ?
      Look. Get to grips with what I’ve written. I know, I know. I sound like a wanker.
      But keep an open mind and let the lies come in. We’ve been swindled on a scale unseen in swindler circles.
      My earnest belief is that an independent inquiry would completely up-end our entire history.
      I know ! Mad aye ?
      Homeless people in NZ is an embarrassment . It’s an indictment on our collective intelligence.
      I can, however, understand the Haters and other lesser humans who believe it serves the homeless right. It’s in those Haters and liars. In there. That’s where the lazy swindlers lurk.

      • Its just the productive sector getting bled dry by the parasitic sector, productive industries produce wealth while parasitic business take money from us all for services we don’t really need. Take health & safety or education, it is vital yet various groups make a healthy profit providing services which could be provided by government at a more economic cost, health & safety training should be free to industries that need it. I guess there is some debate possible over education but the basic school & university for suitable students should be mostly free.

  5. Although this,…is a positive sign indeed….from the NZ Herald, 18/05/2016

    However, Business NZ chief executive Kirk Hope welcomed the Labour Party’s announcement, saying providing for more land is the key issue to freeing up the block on housing constraints.

    “With agreement on this issue between both main political parties, it is to be hoped that local government planning decisions will take heed of the need to focus on land and housing supply,” Hope said.

  6. CHRIS WE CANNOT AFFORT MORE FUNDING BEING TAKEN FROM OTHER PROVENCES TO KEEP FEEDING A RAIL UPGRADE FOR AUCKLAND AS KIWRAIL HAS CAUSED TAKING OF FUNDING FROM OTHER REIONAL SERVICES TO PROP UP AUCKLAND RAIL AS GISBORNE HB LEARNED AS TO WHAT CAUSED THEIR RAIL TO CLOSE DOWN AND NOW TRUCKS ARE KILING PEOPLE WITH RTRUCK FGREIDLOCK ON THEIR ROADS NOW!!!!

    READ WHAT HAPPEND THERE.; GISBPRNE RAIL MAINANENCE FUNDS “RE-DIRECTED” TO AUCKLAND RAIL WAS TOLD TO US BY CEO AT A MEETING.

    SIMPLY AUCKLAND EXPANSION IS CAUSING UNTOLD DAMAGE TO OTHER REFGIONS AS HB/GISBORNE FOUND OUT ALREADY.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1302/S00183/kiwirail-admits-lack-of-maintenance-led-to-wash-out.htm

    “KiwiRail has told Parliament’s transport committee, KiwiRail cut and deferred $200 million of network maintenance last year.
    KiwiRail admits lack of maintenance led to wash-out
    Thursday, 14 February 2013, 1:35 pm
    Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

    Phil Twyford
    Transport Spokesperson
    14 February 2013
    KiwiRail admits lack of maintenance led to wash-out
    KiwiRail has admitted that its failure to maintain old and damaged culverts was behind the wash out that closed the Gisborne-Napier line, while cuts to its maintenance budget are putting the network at further risk, Labour’s Transport spokesperson Phil Twyford says.
    “Across the country KiwiRail missed its target of replacing 71 old culverts last year, and only replaced 49. This is cause for alarm.
    “The Gisborne-Napier wash-out shows what happens when essential maintenance work is not carried out.
    “KiwiRail cut and deferred $200 million of network maintenance last year. At the very time it needs to be upgrading its network and improving efficiency, the Government’s unrealistic ‘Turn Around Plan’ is putting enormous stress on the organisation and forcing it to cut maintenance.
    “KiwiRail has told Parliament’s transport committee it has 12,197 rail line culverts around the country and has done a risk assessment identifying 53 high priority culverts but ‘…in spite of every effort to mitigate risk, some incidents of wash out may still occur…’
    “National’s plan for rail is not workable. KiwiRail has missed its financial targets for two of the last three years. It is being forced to make cuts that are a false economy.
    “At a time when the Government is wasting billions of dollars on its ‘motorways of madness’, it makes no sense to cripple the national rail line.”

    • Yes but present policies do make a lot of short-term money for road construction and maintenance companies, car importation companies, salesmen (and women), streetlight importers and installers, traffic-light importers and installers, importers and users of orange cones, orange tape and hardhats, importers and distributers and retailers of fuel, motor mechanics, panel beaters, insurance agents, town planners and consultants etc.

      You, I and a lot of other people know ALL government policies are geared to extremely-short-term thinking that utterly wrecks the future of everyone except the very aged and terminally ill but keeps present Ponzi arrangements going just a little bit longer.

      The fact that none of it is sustainable is of no concern to the present crop of criminals and clowns that infest the political arena: they reckon they will have made their money and run before it all implodes. However, the scientific evidence indicates they have their timing very wrong and that it will all start to seriously implode within 5 years, maybe as early as the end of this year.

  7. This is labour *starting* to think on its feet: When National is correct, then fall into line behind them. It’s the only rational and sensible thing to do.

    Also Labour needs to quickly distance itself from its local government progeny in Auckland so as not to be tarred with the same brush. Two terms of Len Brown & friends yet we still have no viable city plan! Massive debt, failed projects and squandered opportunities.

    Central government had no choice but to step in.

    Bill English arrives with a Big Stick, threatens to impose commissioners on the Council and sets a deadline for compliance. That is leadership.

    • Well…up until now… respect for big govt has been noticeably lacking in your diatribes…

      I take it you have seen the light about what govt is there to do… serve the people – all of them.

      Im impressed.

      As surely this is a marked U – turn from the usual attempts at far right wing fanaticism made by you. Perhaps haunting TDB will eventually cause you to expunge the lunacy of neo liberal fanaticism totally and see the light…

      However … I suspect it is more the case that you see an angle to put in a punt for your failed and corrupt favorite political party and their equally as corrupt and vicious leader.

  8. Here we go again. More ‘growth’, more people, more immigration, more arable land gobbled up, more cars, more concrete, more consumption of resources, more climate change. Homo sapiens, collectively, does not seem to have the ability to manage itself in a way that can be sustained long-term. And as more people arrive – needing jobs – we’ll have to ‘grow the economy’ all over again – and so the cycle of destruction goes on. Few politicians will have the guts to face this conundrum until a majority of voters grasp the fact that endless growth is an adolescent fantasy. We need fewer children, fewer immigrants, less consumption.

  9. The idea that freeing up land will reduce house prices is a total myth and I’m embarrassed for Phil Twyford that he has bought into this patent nonsense. Of COURSE the business sector loves it – it’s lots of money-making opportunities for them. They’re not interested in housing the homeless, just those fat infrastructure contracts. Which we, not the sprawl merchants, pay for by the way.
    I see Mr Twyford quoting the MOTU report on the MUL to justify his position. Interestingly, that report is used as an example of pointless economic claptrap in one uni course I know of. Written in 2007, it concludes (without saying so) that the MUL worked as intended, ie it largely limited Auckland’s urban sprawl. However arguing that the MUL is what makes land in Auckland expensive ignores a plethora of other contributing factors.
    A more rational contribution to the debate can be found here:
    http://www.business.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news-and-media/nz-herald-brand-insights/2015/make-developers-provide-affordable-housing.html

    • Yeah I guess so with a govt that likes a low wage economy and doesn’t care about kids dying through poverty, family’s living in cars and under bridges and in tents and garages… I guess Key would say that , wouldn’t he…

      Mind you… the Business NZ chief executive seems to think there’s cash there to alleviate some of the problem – as does Labour/s Phil Twyford…

      So just what has Keys problem been all this time – after 8 years,- in fact ?

    • Take a leaf from Vogel and Bill English – borrow it. Oh and no more silly tax cuts to get votes. Actually tax cuts are starting to look like dropping the drinking age, a cheap vote getter.

      Then when we get less that 1% unemployment we will have the tax revenue to afford such loans.

    • Key knows where the money has gone..
      Look no further than the Australian owned banks, the lack of tax take from the dodgy Chinese developers that are rampant here and the flow of money out of the country due to the selling off of major dividend paying State assets to overseas buyers!!

  13. On RNZ’s “Morning Report”, this morning (18/5/16) Max Rashbrooke and James Crow spoke to Guyon Espiner about the urgent need for 20,000 new homes –

    Did they say the government put in 67,000 new migrants into NZ (60% in Auckland) last year.

    Hmmm problem solved in a jiffy. Stop the immigration crisis until the mythical rail and houses are actually built and able to be lived in and priced so that a Kiwi on average wages can afford it.

    Sorry sounds too sensible for most media commentators and politicians to understand.

    Then start the migrants coming again….

  15. “That Twyford’s announcement prompted congratulatory media releases from the National Party, Business New Zealand and the Taxpayer’s Union is a measure of just how big a concession Labour has made.”

    “Seventy years on, however, with the population of Auckland approaching two million, the size of the planning canvass has expanded considerably. Looking forward, we must now envisage an urban corridor extending all the way from Hamilton to Whangarei.”

    NO, Mr Trotter, like Phil Twyford, a professional politician turn-coat of the worst kinds, you have totally lost the plot, like all that support this madness.

    This is a total flip flop by Twyford and Labour, of the types they like to blame Key for. Not only are they now falling into the back of their old “mate” Len Brown, by stabbing him and his “vision” for a “compact city” (see the Auckland Plan) in the back. Twyford and Labour have now clearly sold out to the developer lobby, which Phil Twyford has been romancing with for some time:
    http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11553128

    Together with right leaning, pro market and business supported think tank ‘The NZ Initiative’ leader Oliver Hartwich – Twyford said the following (29 Nov. 15):
    “Some people are fearful density means the kinds of high rise slums you see in Hobson St. It need not be this way. There are plenty of examples of density done well, you only need to look at the buildings designed by Mark Todd’s Ockham Residential.”

    “We propose three modest ideas:
    •Instead of using urban growth boundaries, empower communities to protect places that are of special character and value to them.
    •Free up density and height controls and rely more on high urban design standards including requirements for open and green space, to allow more affordable housing in the city. Let the market discover where and how people want to live.
    •Take developers out of the business of financing new infrastructure. Instead, spread the cost over the assets’ lifetime, either by issuing local government bonds or establishing Community Development Districts.”

    That may in part sound ok, but most developers have fought the so-called Rural Urban Boundary (RUB) that is a core part of the so-called Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP) and that was also suggested by the Auckland Plan (previously existing in the form of the Metropolitan Urban Limit), wanting that wider sprawl be allowed again, north, south, west and east.

    You can find enough evidence of this by going through the extensive evidence presented to the Hearing Panel presently considering the submissions on the PAUP:
    https://hearings.aupihp.govt.nz/hearings

    For instance Mark Todd, half owner of Ockham Holdings, wants as little rules as possible, thinking that the developers will have good intentions and a conscience and built the right kind of structures in the right form and environment:
    https://hearings.aupihp.govt.nz/online-services/new/files/4Htj14xY7uuDbDmpdx3coPOhSISfkIvoNXjvZsBq8ci4

    But anybody’s blind faith in this and the assurances of other developers is a folly, as past experiences in Auckland have shown (look at the shocking architecture in Auckland’s CBD!).

    While there is truth to the fact that the proposed RUB and also zoning for intensification as core parts of the PAUP have led to “investors” and speculators snapping up much land and housing, the problems lies not just there.

    Again Twyford and others do NOT address the main driver of increased demand for housing, and that is population increase. They all take it as a given that Auckland will grow, as if they cannot stop a “tsunami” coming towards them. Immigration is one reason for the increased demand, and can be controlled more easily than natural population increase may be. But like central government, Labour now does not dare to act there (I wonder why?).

    It seems that Twyford and Labour have given up the only area where they could make a difference to this government, by offering a real alternative, but in joining the government to now slam Auckland Council, they have basically made themselves more redundant than ever.

    They have put into question a core aim and part of the Auckland Plan, and also of the PAUP, which means, those Plans may in large part as well be ditched now. Years of planning, discussion and over two years submissions on the PAUP have apparently been a waste of time.

    And also are Bill English and Phil Twyford interfering in the legal process of a notified Plan hearing on the PAUP. They are sending intimidating messages to Auckland Council to give up a core part of the Plans just mentioned, and allow more spread. This is stuff that will also interfere with the Panel due to make recommendations, and with Council having to decide on all that.

    While it is noble to talk about infrastructure, that is central government’s responsibility, it is NOT part of the PAUP, believe it or not, the PAUP only has to provide for considerations and to facilitate consultation and collaboration on infrastructure matters, nothing more.

    It shows again how amateurish politicians at local and national level are in New Zealand, thinking that it is all the planners’ fault, and flip flopping when public pressure grows. What actually does Labour stand for, does anybody know?

    I have lost the last bit of faith in Twyford and his party, they may have a point, but these recent messages are an invitation to sprawl and spread, not addressing physical resource limitations like water supply issues and more, not addressing the immense costs for it all, and overall, it is a sell-out of principles and ideas. Labour has just shot itself in the foot, a huge hole!

    And the frequent mention of Germany and Scandinavia, few here know, they have MORE rules, not fewer than New Zealand, it is New Zealand incompetence that has brought us here, like with the leaky building crisis. What utter madness do I hear and read???!!!

  16. “A conurbation of this size cannot be serviced efficiently by the automobile. Crucial to its success would be the creation of a state-of-the-art rapid-rail network capable of whisking commuters from Hamilton to Downtown Auckland in 30 minutes. (If that seems impossible, just have a word with the French and the Chinese!) The huge enabling power of such a network would be more than sufficient to underwrite the many housing developments along its length.”

    Yes, we certainly need a proper, wider public rail network, that is for public transport, and also for more freight transport.

    But the costs would be immense, so this can only be done by charging all Aucklanders, not just ratepayers, a fair bit more, and that means also, discouraging car transport, which will not happen without exerting some force over the many Aucklanders who love their four wheels and little mobile cabins, and drive every where.

    This can only be done by a democratic process, or is Chris suggesting we adopt central government control like in Mainland China? It will not happen, unless people believe in giving up their cars, and drive less. But most are living in lala land here, they want it both ways, and not pay extra, cycle on the weekend, or only when the sun is out, and keep their car for most transport.

    That is where all these plans fail and fall over. The people do not even get informed and educated with the shit media we have, so how do you expect any informed democratic debate even?

    As for Germany and Scandinavia, Chris does again live in the romanticised past, where are these public entities or institutions, about which he talks about here?

    Quote:
    “Rather than leave the design and construction of these new communities to the private sector, Labour should promote the creation of a public design and construction entity dedicated to building homes, apartments and community facilities equal to anything currently on display in Germany and Scandinavia.”

    German law favours property ownership and the right to develop your own property, while also ensuring that property comes with a duty to consider public interests.

    But read this, and it shows that private enterprise is strongly favoured there, and construction there is mostly or almost exclusively by private construction firms working with developers (these days at least):
    http://propertyclick.nz/2015/10/20/germany-how-it-regulates-new-housing-supply-and-development/

    While there is assistance offered to build in Germany, also often tax breaks offered for new home owners, they have more rules than New Zealand, so rules themselves can hardly be the problems.

    I would favour more collective building activity, and collectives are somewhat common in Germany, and this may be something New Zealand can learn from.

    At the same time the whole environment and conditions in Germany are markedly different. Apart from the recent influx of many refugees, that country is hardly one facing high immigration, and hence they have a very stable population, unless New Zealand.

    So the market there does not face such population pressures as New Zealand and especially Auckland face.

    And more people need more resources, not just trains to travel and homes to live in. Think about water, clean air and space to recreate, plus services like schools, hospitals and so much more, we face BILLIONS of extra costs with the high immigration increase we now have, but government and Council have planned f*ck all for this.

    Germans can plan, New Zealanders just plan from paypacket to paypacket, perhaps for a home (if they earn much or have investment potential), for the rest they hope for a better future and just keep muddling on.

    It requires as much a culture change, yes first a culture change, before anything else, Mr Trotter.

  17. The Labour agreement to support the build-out concept looks like an intentional poisoned chalice designed to force a new consideration of the development of rail. But we should never underestimate this government’s breathtaking ability to cherry pick the bits they and their voters like in defiance of common sense.

    Look for an increase in green field speculative land-banking, some minor local road building and literally nothing done on either rail or any other longer-distance commuter infrastructure.

    John Key did not get where he is by scaring the horses – or upsetting their riders.

  18. On the other hand it could be another example of Labour selling out to National, trying to be National-lite instead of Labour.
    I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry about this.
    With both Labour and National jumping on the 1970s unmitigated urban sprawl bandwagon, it seems like Auckland City Council will be forced to do what the politicians want – stealing more valuable agricultural land instead of doing the right thing – managing the use of existing housing zone areas better.
    It is not the homeless that will benefit from this – it is the property developers, speculators and real estate agents.

  19. Thinking about the picture that accompanies this item, it is ironically very appropriate because it conjures images the last stranded remnants of the Auckland populace awaiting rescue from rapidly rising waters, desperately hoping there is room on the boat.

    The last time atmospheric CO2 was about 400 ppm sea levels were ‘at least 15 to 25 m above modern levels’:

    http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch6s6-3-2.html

    The Earth hasn’t had time to ‘catch up with’ past emissions yet but we’re now frantically pushing towards 420 ppm, and then 450 ppm, implying 30 to 40 metres of sea level rise over coming decades.

    ‘Atmospheric CO2 levels now approaching 410 parts per million are pushing global temperatures dangerously close to the 1.5 C threshold identified by scientists as marking a the first series of civilization-endangering climate tipping points. Maintaining CO2 levels near 410 parts per million risks 3 C warming long term. Continuing carbon emissions makes an already bad situation dramatically worse.

    These are now the highest atmospheric CO2 levels seen in the last 23 million years. And an annual rate of CO2 increase approaching 4 parts per million is unheard of for any time period in any geological record — even during the Permian hothouse extinction event which wiped out about 90 percent of life in the oceans and 75 percent of life on land. This very rapid rate of atmospheric CO2 increase is being spurred on by a fossil fuel based carbon emission now in the range of 13 billion tons each year (of which CO2 is the vast majority). That’s a rate of carbon addition more than ten times faster than the carbon spike that set off the Paleocene-Eocene hothouse mass extinction about 55 million years ago

    https://robertscribbler.com/2016/05/18/key-hothouse-gas-to-rise-at-record-rate-hit-near-408-parts-per-million-in-2016/

      • We could try not making it all worse faster. But ‘nobody’ wants to even try that, other than a tiny percentage of ‘weirdos’.

  20. But it won’t happen the way you suggest Chis in those 3 critical paragraphs near the end of your post:

    ‘A conurbation of this size cannot be serviced efficiently by the automobile….
    Rather than leave the design and construction of these new communities to the private sector, Labour should promote the creation of a public design and construction entity …
    … Only by, once again, making the State the nation’s pre-eminent – and most accommodating – landlord …”

    No – most of the new housing will fall into the hands of speculators, the banks will create more and more credit ex nihilo further inflating the bubble, ratepayers will be expected to fund the delivery of infrastructure further and further out, and the problem will get worse.

    A few people will also get very rich.

    Demand has to be curtailed first – the tax advantages of speculation and uncontrolled immigration mean the demand is almost limitless and will always overwhelm increases in supply. Unless Phil Twyford rapidly elaborates on what conditions and restrictions on demand will accompany abandoning the urban limit then I think this is a bad mistake.

  21. Planning in NZ never sees past short term expediency.

    Who’s surprised that Labour won’t do anything else?

  22. After really careful thinking about all this, I come to the conclusion, Twyford is an arrogant twit, that should be thrown out of Labour and have his spokesperson role taken off him.

    What a useless idiot, selling out to developers, but do we expect anything else from Labour?

  23. And who’d be surprised if they did, RC?
    You can’t answer all questions in one go without a combination of eye-rolling and losing your audience.
    The fact is, the Left are not in power so chill.
    The housing situation in Auckland is now at the point of needing belt and braces and towel. It is going to end up being a case of all of the above. Intensification alone won’t do it. Sure, you need to restrict new, external purchasers, sure you need a massive State build to begin to address the moribund low-rent sector, sure you need to put regulatory pressure on land bankers, while avoiding total top-end capture but you also need to free up some land on the periphery. To get general agreement, the solution, in the end will have to be comprehensive. It isn’t enough just to taihoa until Australia comes back to hoover up our aspirational young, that may be a long wait.

    BTW It is true that many of us further South would like to see population concentration reverse, but we would want to see it happen for positive reasons: by offering lifestyle and opportunity, not just by adding to an unlivable Hellhole in Auckland.

  24. Soooo dull-witted. Sooooo credulous. Soooo blind to reality.

    Generations of brain-drain have taken their toll. Now, when we need it the most, we Kiwis lack the basic intelligence required to keep the little we have, much less create the shiny new vision of the future that Chris has hypnotised us with.

    Because of how slow and plodding we are, any urban expansion of Auckland will easily take 20 years, if it happens at all. But in 20 years, by all estimations, there won’t be any ice sheet left in Greenland to speak of. Rising seas will threaten the CBD. The oceans will be empty of fish, and we will be living in what I have termed, the “endless summer before the end”.

    We are in a crisis of such proportions that we can’t even imagine it. But Key fiddles while we burn, Little dances the jig, and Trotter sings the chorus.

    We are unworthy to survive this crisis, and for this reason, we will perish. No doubt each nation, and every people will find their own fate. But in New Zealand, we will meet our end when the last person to gasp their last breath has fallen to heat exhaustion while trying to hammer a “For Sale” sign into the dead lawn of some “million dollar shack” in Auckland.

    Fools.

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