18 March 2016

Stop gap measures welcome but wider review of planning system necessary

Property Council believes stop gap measures are required to make the current resource management system more effective in the short to medium terms.

Chief Executive Connal Townsend says this is especially important while the Productivity Commission undertakes a higher level review that focuses on the longer term direction of how New Zealand manages the growth of major cities.

“That is why we support the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, as it aims to make the current system more efficient while the Productivity Commission considers long term solutions.

“While the Bill does not go far enough, the proposed changes will have positive effects on planning, consenting and land development processes.”

The Bill attempts to reform how councils prepare district plans and reduce crippling bureaucracy in consenting practices. It introduces highly useful national planning templates and improves processes around preparing national policy statements.

Property Council strongly supports the Bill’s historic requirement for councils to properly plan for and manage population growth and its regard for housing supply and affordability as high priority areas.

“Such changes are the sort of measures we need to address the country’s housing supply and affordability issues. The flow on effect from Auckland is now evident with other urban areas starting to experience sharp increases in house prices.

“We desperately need pragmatic outcomes that will alleviate national pressures created by the housing market, which makes this Bill a good step in the right direction.”

Property Council’s submission follows ongoing work with other Government departments. It recently submitted to the Ministry from the Environment regarding the proposed development of a National Policy Statement on Urban Development.

“We are pleased Central Government is paying attention. It is important that while we have this attention we get the right outcomes to avoid continuing the same cycle of inefficiencies and ill-conceived ideas prevalent in our wider resource management system.”

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