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Housing deal a 'humiliating climbdown'

Author
Nick Smith (NZME.) ,
Publish Date
Fri, 4 Sep 2015, 9:31AM

Housing deal a 'humiliating climbdown'

Author
Nick Smith (NZME.) ,
Publish Date
Fri, 4 Sep 2015, 9:31AM

The government is being accused of making a mess of its Auckland housing plans by the opposition.

Ngati Whatua were concerned plans to sell Crown property for residential development in Auckland could breach their right of first refusal to buy surplus land. They withdrew legal proceedings yesterday afternoon.

In a deal struck with the government, the iwi will get right of first refusal for development projects and commitments have been made that 20 percent of planned houses will go community providers and another 20 percent will be priced as affordable homes.

However Labour MP Phil Twyford claimed the government should have had Auckland iwi involved right from the beginning, but "instead they dragged themselves and the country and Ngati Whatua through a protracted process to get a result that they should have really tackled right in the beginning."

"Ngati Whatua have obviously won this, they've extracted a humiliating climbdown from the government. You have to say it vindicates Ngati Whatua's arguments all the way along, they do have right of first refusal."

Housing Minister Nick Smith said the iwi was concerned the government could bypass all rights of first of refusal and sell all the land off for the best price.

"We thought 'look that's not our intention'. It's very much about increasing the supply of both social housing and affordable housing," Smith said.

 

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