Twyford Fiddles While Rome Burns

“While the Government has managed to roll out feel-good housing policies, Cabinet has not yet bothered to consider the biggest roadblock to more housing: the Resource Management Act”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“A housing "stocktake" and a xenophobic foreign house-buyer ban will do nothing to help the private sector build more houses.

"Cities around the world with expensive housing all have one factor in common: tight land use regulation. The RMA achieves that.

"Those with responsibility for the RMA - the Environment Minister and his Ministry - have now both admitted that the Act has utterly failed to deliver enough housing.

“However, David Parker says Cabinet hasn’t yet looked at the RMA, and Phil Twyford, who advocated for RMA reform in Opposition, has been completely silent in Government.

“ACT has consistently pushed for removing New Zealand’s large cities from the RMA, creating separate urban development legislation, prioritising land supply and reducing red tape on developers. We have also advocated incentivising councils to consent more land for development and build more infrastructure by sharing a portion of GST levied on construction.

"The Government needs to act swiftly so the private sector can get on with delivering more houses", says My Seymour.

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