13 March 2013

Statement from Chief Planning Officer Roger Blakeley on Government overview of Auckland housing

“Auckland Council welcomes publication of the Government’s report today on Auckland’s housing challenges and their broad agreement with our assessment of current challenges.

"The Council has consistently said that land supply needs to be increased in greenfields areas and this is a key focus for Council.

“In terms of capacity for dwellings, the Council has been consistently clear that there is capacity for 15,000 dwellings on greenfields land, which includes around 2,000 sections available now. This is broadly in line with the Government’s assessment.

“The Auckland Plan sets a target of an average seven years supply of ‘ready to go’ greenfields land for housing. Auckland currently has around three to four years supply, based on the projected growth in greenfields of 50,000 dwellings in the first ten years. This recognizes that growth in dwellings will be slower coming out of the global financial crisis than later in the three decades of the Auckland Plan.

“‘Ready to go land’, as defined in the draft Unitary Plan, is land zoned urban and with bulk infrastructure services in place for water and waste water.

“However, as the Government’s assessment notes it is not clear that increasing land by itself would increase new housing volumes.

“This is why the Council has developed a broad approach of both increasing land supply in greenfields areas and encouraging further housing development in existing urban areas.”

Ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>