The fourth meeting of the Housing and Urban Development Ministerial Advisory Group (the Group) took place in Auckland on 8 March 2019, with apologies received from Andrew King.
The Group members were joined for the first half of the meeting by Hon Phil Twyford and Hon Jenny Salesa. Officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), The Treasury, Housing New Zealand, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and Te Puni Kōkiri also attended.
Minister Twyford spoke about his recent visit to Australia to co-host the Trans-Tasman Cities Symposium with his Australian counterpart, the Hon Alan Tudge MP, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, and to visit state government-led urban development projects and agencies in Victoria and New South Wales. He noted that Australia has a long history of government-led urban regeneration, and is also focusing on encouraging mode shift to public transport. Australia has the advantage of its experience, its larger private development sector, and its greater financial resources. New Zealand will need to rely more on innovation and agility.
Minister Twyford then spoke about the Government’s continued commitment to making sure the HUD work programme, including KiwiBuild and wider system reform, continues to support the private development sector to deliver more affordable housing supply. The Group acknowledged that central government investing in partnerships with the private sector was welcome and timely in order to progress housing initiatives.
Overall, the Minister was happy with how the new HUD Ministry was performing, and with the progress establishing the new Housing and Urban Development Authority (HUDA) as a new fully-integrated delivery entity within the system. The Minister noted how the Urban Growth Agenda work programme and the Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport had important areas of crossover, such as with the objective of delivering development along transit corridors, and that HUDA would play an important role here also, to ensure we get quality urban intensification.
The Minister and the Group discussed the newly-introduced Healthy Homes Standards and the pending changes to modernise the Residential Tenancies Act and improve security of tenure.
The Group and the Minister also discussed the importance of taking a long-term view of system change, particularly in light of the long lead times for urban infrastructure investment, but also the need to balance that with achieving near-term priorities and investing within current fiscal constraints.
Minister Salesa gave an update on building and construction legislative reform, and held a topical discussion with the Group around risk and liability within the sector and the role that councils play. Minister Salesa said there was widespread agreement amongst Ministers that with the current skilled labour shortage, companies under large contracts should take on apprentices and offer increased training opportunities.
Following the departure of Ministers, officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development outlined how work under the new Ministry had been progressing, and further clarified the respective roles of HUD and HUDA. The Group emphasised the importance of people and communities being at the heart of HUDA-led development projects, as well as having the right senior management in place within HUD and HUDA to ensure good relationships with the private sector, iwi and other stakeholders.
The Group requested further discussion with officials on the proposed Government Policy Statement on Urban Development and the legislation for HUDA, in order to better understand the detail.
A housing market intelligence and insights presentation followed. The key messages from the Group were that data-sharing between agencies is crucial, and must be kept up-to-date for effective forecasting. The data should be presented in an easy-to-understand format, and is most useful if applied to current priority needs, such as which typologies are needed for different types of households.
Finally, officials updated and discussed with the Group the changes occurring within the organisational structure of HUD, including increasing the focus on place and placemaking, and the setup of a new Maori Housing Unit within HUD. The Group wished to see ongoing healthy debate around HUD’s approach to public housing and addressing homelessness.
The next meeting is scheduled for 7 June 2019.