An application from Hutt City Council to the Government’s Infrastructure Acceleration Fund has been selected from over 200 applications to move to the next stage of submitting a Request for Proposal.

In March 2021, the Government announced a $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund, of which $1 billion is designed to support infrastructure projects that will lay the foundations for further housing development in the short to medium term.

"Our application is all about using the RiverLink project to intensify our CBD by building more houses, and focusing on the infrastructure needed to support additional growth that we’re already experiencing throughout the valley floor," says Mayor Campbell Barry.

"Everyone agrees that we need to get more houses built, and having the infrastructure in place that allows for more apartments through the intensification of our CBD is one way we can increase supply to ultimately help cool the regional housing market."

Council has applied for $157 million from government to support stormwater and wastewater upgrades in the area between Hutt Central, Waterloo, Epuni, Woburn, Avalon, Naenae, and Taita.

If our application is successful, it could mean 1200-1750 extra homes in the CBD; it will also unlock additional capacity across the valley floor, with space for potentially 6000 new homes.

These homes will be a mixture of market, affordable ownership, rental, and public housing. There will be a focus on creating medium and high-density neighbourhoods connected to public transport, jobs and amenities.

"Our CBD is prime for liveability - there is space to build up and we want to take advantage of that. But we need to do it in a way that doesn’t put increasing pressure on our infrastructure.

"That’s why our application focuses on the core infrastructure required to intensify - ensuring that we can fund the stormwater and wastewater networks to support more apartment dwellings."

This project complements the other aspects of the RiverLink project, a $700 million partnership to make the Hutt more resilient, more connected, and more vibrant, through improved flood protection, a new Melling interchange, better access to public transport, and urban revitalisation.

The application process now moves to the Request for Proposal Stage, where Council will make a detailed application to Kāinga Ora to then refer it on to decision-making Ministers for final decisions.

You can find out more about the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund here.

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