Bold housing plan approved

Bold plans to prevent a Wellington housing crisis have been given the green light.

The Wellington City Council voted unanimously yesterday to push through the city’s biggest housing-policy reforms in decades.

Earlier this week, council chief executive Kevin Lavery warned councillors that implementing the plan was going to be tough and achieving its goals could require them to support developers in the face of opposition from residents.

The council’s city strategy committee voted to adopt the plan, from recommendations of the Mayor’s Housing Taskforce, that sets out measures to ensure all Wellingtonians are well housed.

The independent body of experts’ plan included solutions such as increasing building heights and allowing more site coverage, stepping up council-led development, incentivising affordable housing developments, simplifying consents, raising rental standards, partnerships with the community housing sector and signing a new partnership agreement with the government.

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said: ‘‘Wellington is growing strongly, and we need to make sure we are providing opportunities for new homes to match that growth. It won’t be easy but we want to see every Wellingtonian well housed.’’

The plan would leave no stone unturned, he said.

‘‘It has three main components. First, there will be greater leadership from the council. We’re not going to sit on the sidelines and leave it to the market. We’re going to be more involved by directly building new homes, setting better standards and looking at changes to rating, procurement and development policies to incentivise more development.

‘‘Second, we want to partner with central government to free up more land and develop more social housing, especially for the homeless and those in need.

‘‘Finally, we want to work closer with NGOs, community housing providers and developers, especially on increasing social housing. It’s about saying that, as a city, we are in this together and then finding ways to deliver.’’

The next step was to incorporate the plan into the first draft of the 10-year budget in the mayor’s first Long Term Plan.