Q + A – March 24, 2013

LEN BROWN
Auckland City Mayor

Interviewed by JESSICA MUTCH

JESSICA Good morning, Mayor Len Brown. Thank you very much for joining me this morning.

LEN Morning, Jessica.

JESSICA I want to start off by asking you – you heard the minister speaking there – are we seeing—?

LEN Yeah, much better conciliatory tone, actually.

JESSICA Oh, very interesting. So it’s not behind closed doors?

LEN Very very good to see that. No, and, I mean, clearly there have been discussions over the last week or so where there were clear positions in terms of, in particular, whether we’d have a city that would be more urban-sprawl city or a more sort of quality compact city, as we’re indicating in that plan.

JESSICA So are you saying he’s saying something different to us this morning than he was saying behind closed doors?

LEN No, I think the tone’s moderating to the extent that we can have a really good discussion about one general agreement around the plan – creating the world’s most liveable city, with the Auckland plan, the rules from the unitary plan coming in behind it, delivering a quality, compact city. Much higher level of agreement around that now, certainly through the tone, so very pleased to hear that.

JESSICA So, you said before, you said he was more conciliatory in the tone. Do you mean that he’s come around?

LEN Oh, in the interview here today—Well, you know, I think that… So the key thing here is that the government—

JESSICA But let’s just talk about Nick Smith.

LEN Yeah, I know, but the government set up the supercity – one leader, one plan, one vision. We’ve got the plan in place. And then the government basically agree with that plan through the Auckland plan process. And now the unitary plan implements that quality compact city. And I think that feedback that the government and the minister would have had over the last two or three weeks from Aucklanders generally is “this is our plan. Back our plan. Let’s get the business done, get the plan in place, the unitary plan in place, the rules so we can actually get the house building done. Whether it’s stand-alone homes, whether it’s apartments, whether or not it’s terraced housing, let’s get on with it.”

JESSICA So you want to be left to it, basically? You want the central government to butt out and you want then to get on with it?

LEN No, we don’t. No, no, we don’t want them to butt out. This is a collaborative process. The central government have a key role to play here, and they’ve acknowledged that right through the process and working with us with the Auckland plan, and also with the unitary plan over the last 12 months. This is— The discussion has been about, to some extent, vision. And I see in Nick’s comments this morning a much greater determination to be collaborative around how we deliver the unitary plan and get homes built in this city with pace.

JESSICA Because is there a bit of a power struggle going on—?

LEN Oh, you would like to see that, Jessica, but no, there’s—

JESSICA But is there?

LEN No, of course not. Look, we’ve been established—

JESSICA Because, to be fair, those comments that you said at the beginning, and also what Nick Smith said before, it would suggest a rather robust relationship.

LEN And that’s the nature of councils and Auckland Council in its first iteration and government. You're not going to agree on everything. But what we are saying is that we’re established in particular to do this work – to build a great city, get the right plans and framework in place for our business community and our builders to get the job done, particularly coming out of a recession. It’s critical for the city and the nation. And so we believe that with the unitary plan, we’ve got the right set of rules to get the right balance and mix of homes built within the present urban framework and outside in what we call greenfields. So, you know, I think we have the right framework to have a great discussion with government, but we need pace to get those rules in place.

JESSICA And they’re not letting you get on with it?

LEN So that’s the nub. And so on the basis that we agree the plan, and, you know, my hope is that the discussions over recent days have reflected a much higher level of “yep, we’re going forward”. Then in that situation, it is how quickly do you get those rules into place? We want those rules to be in place as a weighted set of regulations when the unitary plan is notified—

JESSICA By September.

LEN …in September. We want those rules in place—

JESSICA But the government wants to wait for three years.

LEN Well, they say it’ll take three years. They want it to go through a process that does not give it weight. So we’ve yet to conclude that debate. Now, it’s clear that the government, I think, have a view on that. I want to continue to try and persuade them, on behalf of Aucklanders,that they view isn’t right. But outside of that issue, we are both in agreement that coming out of the recession – and now the Auckland property market is hot. You know, over the last six months, 3000 new homes consented—

JESSICA Well, let’s talk about that plan a little bit more. Auckland’s going to need 400,000 new homes over the next 30 years.

LEN 30 years, that’s right.

JESSICA Over the next 30 years. You’re—

LEN About 13,000 houses per annum. And, remember, that is because we’re expecting, we’re projecting an extra one million people to move in and around or be born within this city. So we’re looking to manage the growth.

JESSICA So you’re saying go up?

LEN So we’re saying going out. Over the next 30 years, we expect to take up in excess of 146 square kilometres of new greenfields lands development within the rural-urban boundary.

JESSICA And also go up as well.

LEN And also up. So we’re also looking for the possibility of a more intensive building platform, so multi-level development, whether it’s low level, medium or upper level, depending on where.

JESSICA This kind of living would be quite an adjustment for a lot of New Zealanders.

LEN So 25% of Aucklanders now do not live in stand-alone houses.

JESSICA So do we just have to get used to this?

LEN For a start, it’s a reflection of an international city, but it’s not getting used to. Many people actually have the choice: “I want to be in an apartment. I want to live—“

JESSICA But a lot of people don’t because of the price.

LEN No, I accept that, but if it’s price alone, they buy an apartment because they’re generally cheaper. For example, in New Lynn, there's a new 13-storey apartment block going in there. Opened up for sale off the plans in November last year and pretty much sold half off the plans already: one-, two- and three-bedroom houses right next to the train station. People are making lifestyle choices. Our unitary plan provides for those options for them, and that’s the reason why we want to really open up the possibility of brownfields developments in and around some our urban centres and transport hubs, but also stand-alone greenfields development out in what we call the rural-urban boundary area.

JESSICA We’ll have to leave it there. Thank you very much for joining us this morning.

LEN I’d like to discuss it all day!

JESSICA So would I! Mayor Len Brown, thank you very much.

ENDS