Urban Growth Agenda
The Urban Growth Agenda (UGA) is a cross-portfolio work programme to improve urban outcomes in response to the challenges facing our urban areas.
This work aims to remove barriers to the supply of land and infrastructure and make room for cities to grow up and out. The UGA Ministers group that governs the programme includes the Ministers of Housing, Infrastructure, Transport, Local Government, and the Ministers for Building and Construction and the Environment.
Objectives of the UGA
Affordable housing
Giving people more and better options for housing locations and types, to improve housing affordability in urban areas.
Emissions reductions
Encouraging, enabling, and incentivising lower emission urban form and construction.
Liveable and resilient cities
Making urban areas more accessible and inclusive, and increasing resilience to natural hazards and climate change impacts.
Focus areas
The UGA is built on five pillars:
- Infrastructure Funding, Financing, and Delivery — to enable a more responsive supply of infrastructure and appropriate cost allocation, while supporting stable and certain funding systems.
- Urban Planning — to allow for cities to make room for growth, support quality-built environments and enable strategic integrated planning.
- Urban Growth Partnership — to build a stronger partnership with iwi and Māori, and between local and central government as a means of developing integrated spatial planning.
- Levering and Integrating Transport — to ensure low-carbon, well-connected public and active transport through transport investment and land use across the pillars.
- System Coherence — to ensure that regulatory, institutional and funding settings are integrated and mutually reinforcing, and that and urban development perspective is included across government reforms.
Recent initiatives delivered through UGA
These pillars are being delivered through urban growth partnerships, policy programmes, and system reforms across government.
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Urban growth
Under the Urban Growth Agenda (UGA), central government is expected to partner with local governments and iwi to ensure that government investment in infrastructure is aligned to help deliver connected, thriving and sustainable urban communities.
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National Policy Statement on Urban
The National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) aims to ensure that New Zealand’s towns and cities are well-functioning urban environments that meet the changing needs of our diverse communities.
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Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act
The Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020 is a new way to fund and finance infrastructure projects that support housing and urban development.
Published: April 13, 2022