So much for the vision of a Super City

Every so often local government in New Zealand is reminded who is boss. Power is very centralised in this country. We do not have states or provinces with constitutional autonomy in some areas of public administration. Here local government does what central government says it can do.

Seldom has this been more evident than on Friday when we reported that Housing Minister Phil Twyford is going to over-ride the Auckland Council’s Unitary Plan in areas where he wants to get many more houses built quickly.

Twyford intends to put a proposal to the Cabinet “very soon” to establish a new Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and an “Urban Development Authority” for Auckland that will become the planning and consenting body for a dozen or more residential developments such as the one announced on the Unitec site.

So much for the Unitary Plan that Auckland’s elected council members sweated on for years, submitting drafts for public consultation, and revisions for more consultation.

So much for the “Super City”, conceived as a new tier of government, stronger than the regional council it replaced, over-riding local government as Auckland had known it, all to give the city, “one voice, one plan”.

That voice, Mayor Phil Goff, sounded rather supine in response to Twyford’s intentions. Goff said his council had some sympathy “in principle” with the proposal but did not accept the council was taking too long to consent to housing developments.

At last count the council had issued 12,845 consents in a year, which is approaching the 14,000 to 15,000 new homes Auckland needs annually to keep up with population growth. But Twyford, reflecting the view of departments in Wellington, considers Auckland’s Unitary Plan a sell-out to suburban resistance to higher density housing.

Private developers would no doubt agree with him. Each could offer a catalogue of frustrations with council planning requirements and the time its planners take to issue consents. But private developers won’t be relieved of the Unitary Plan.

Twyford is proposing to over-ride the council only for Government-sponsored housing, which should enable his KiwiBuild programme to lure construction resources. Companies building for the Government will be able to finish projects more quickly with consents from its UDA and the houses will be cheaper without the costs of council demands and delays.

Auckland urgently needs those houses and many young home-seekers need them to be more affordable. Few will be concerned that the Government has sidelined local government in the process — so long as the results turn out well.

Government housing in Auckland has not often produced happy results for the city. Much of it has paid little regard to Auckland’s plans. This time, the housing is likely to be co-ordinated with Auckland’s public transport plans, now being developed by the Government’s transport agency.

So much for the Super City.