The Government is jumping the gun with veiled threats and premature comments when it comes to the future of Auckland's housing.
That's the view of an Auckland Councillor, following comments by Finance Minister Bill English that the Government is not ruling out stepping in if the Council's pending unitary plan isn't satisfactory.
Unitary Plan Committee Chair Alf Filipaina said he's not surprised at the heavy-handed comments, but they seem premature given recommendations by the independent panel tasked with formulating a plan haven't been given yet.
"Using words to the effect that look, if you don't do anything then we will, when we just need to let the process complete and then let's see where we settle and then talk about it after that."
He said the Council is waiting on upcoming recommendations from an independent panel.
"Better waiting for the recommendations from the independent hearings panel on the 22nd of July and let's see what happens in regards to those. It's not going to help anybody's case with all these veiled threats."
The Auckland Ratepayers Alliance said it's not against intensification, but is welcoming the call to open up more land in Auckland.
Both National and Labour have put the hard word on Auckland Council - they want it to scrap Auckland's city limit boundary in its unitary plan, to free up more land for development to ease house price inflation.
Spokesperson Jo Holmes said building up and spreading suburbs out, is the best way to tackle high demand.
"It means people can weigh up the costs and decide for themselves whether to build up or out. There's still plenty of places where intensification is quite appropriate."
She said the unitary plan forces too much urban intensification.
"It stops Auckland Council forcing on communities intensification that they don't necessarily want."
ACT leader David Seymour said higher density in the city still requires infrastructure upgrades, which are often ignored.
"Congestion, school zones and community character there's always going to be a lot of resistance from any community in the world to intensification."
Recommendations will be made on July 22nd.
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