Wellington City Council will need to find another solution to remove the heritage listings of buildings it is keen to demolish after the Government rejected the right to do so because of legal constraints.

The decision was made as a result of RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop considering the council's housing recommendations. He signed off on virtually everything put before him but chose not to de-list the heritage status of 10 buildings including the Gordon Wilson flats.

Takapu-North Ward councillor Ben McNulty told Newstalk ZB this morning he believed Bishop was aware the buildings need to be demolished but that his hands were tied.

"Do I think, in his heart of hearts, he wants to protect a rusty oil tank in Marama and thinks that [it] has heritage value? No," he said.

"So we just need to go back to the drawing board about how we get the heritage issue dealt with."

Talking to Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB's Drive show on Wednesday evening, Bishop answered questions about his decision to reject the council's request to de-list the buildings. He said he is obligated to follow the law and, in this instance, there wasn't enough expert evidence presented to change his position.

He confirmed to Du Plessis-Allan that this was the only roadblock to giving them consent to strip the buildings of heritage status, which would allow them to be demolished and the land turned around for new use.

"If somebody presented expert evidence as to why these buildings weren't heritage or significant enough to be covered by heritage listing, then I could [sign it off]," he said.

"There is an underlying issue which is that the rules around heritage need changing, and the mayor has written to me about that and I agree with that and we're looking at it very quickly."

In a broader sense, Wellington activists appeared largely pleased with Bishop's approval of the remaining council recommendations. Jesse Richardson, a member of A City For People, had advocated for improved housing intensification within the capital.

Earlier this year, city councillors voted through an ambitious new District Plan enabling the construction of tens of thousands of new homes, including apartments and townhouses in suburbs where they were effectively banned.

In doing so, they rejected recommendations by an independent hearings panel around intensification, character and heritage protection, putting their own alternatives forward instead.

Bishop announced today that he agreed with almost all of the council’s alternative plans including reducing the city’s protected character areas from 206 hectares to 85 hectares and classifying the Johnsonville railway line as rapid transit to enable developments of up to six storeys close to stations along this route.

This decision pleased Richardson, who told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB this morning that the minister's move was a "10 out of 10" decision, and, while not stripping the requested heritage protections was disappointing, it was a drop in the bucket concerning the overall housing situation.

"I think the majority of Wellington residents are quite reasonable when it comes to the understanding there is a tradeoff between heritage and affordability. We seem to have struck quite a good balance in this outcome," said Richardson.

Hosking asked if the city had got the definition of "heritage" correct, considering the dilapidated state of buildings such as the Gordon Wilson flats compared with heritage properties in suburbs like Kelburn.

Richardson said a distinction needed to be made between heritage and character.

"I think you're absolutely right, the Gordon Wilson flats and the Gas Tank do not deserve heritage protection and we should be getting rid of that - with the character protection in places like Kelburn, we still have maintained a lot of that and there's room for character there," he said.

"There's value to having nice aesthetics in those neighbourhoods as well as allowing more housing."

Bishop told ZB that, as housing minister, he could understand Victoria University's desire to demolish the flats and build something new in their place.

"They're ugly and old, they want to knock them down and put something else in for students, and I completely understand that," said Bishop.

"The decision I made about this today around density in Wellington is not the right way to do that, I've got to follow the law and we've a set of processes to change the laws."

And despite needing to go back to square one and rethink a strategy to de-list the targeted properties, McNulty said that Bishop signing off on the other recommendations was one of the big decisions to help fix the city.

He said Wellington sorely needs ratepayers spreading the load of infrastructure to avoid the city going broke.

"So this is the way we do it - the marginal cost of putting people in our CBD is a lot less than if we sprawl them out. So this is a part of the puzzle," he said.

"We are going to get denser, we will have more people, but I see opportunity in that and I think Bishop's directive has been pretty clear - up and out. We've pushed the up part and now we need the out part."

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said projections show between 50,000 and 80,000 more people are expected to live in Wellington over the next 30 years.