Dr Parmjeet Parmar
Wellington, July 31, 2017
In my last column, I shared with Indian Newslink readers how this National-led Government is working hard to take on the challenges of housing head-on.
This time, I bring you up to speed on what’s happening closer to home in the Mt Roskill electorate.
Just last month, an agreement was confirmed between appellant parties for a development at Auckland’s Three Kings, proposed by owners Fletcher Residential.
This agreement is great news for Auckland. It will provide up to 1500 homes close to the city on well-established transport links.
Good transformation
It will transform the eyesore of a derelict quarry into a modern, integrated, inner-city community with a town centre, high-quality public spaces and playing fields.
The $1.2 billion investment will provide hundreds of jobs and help maintain the momentum of Auckland’s largest-ever building boom.
A central part of Auckland’s housing solution is large scale inner city redevelopment projects like Fletcher Residential’s project for the Three Kings quarry.
These projects offer the advantage over green fields developments on the city outskirts of putting less pressure on infrastructure.
Other developments
The Government is taking the lead with these large-scale urban development projects with Hobsonville, Tamaki and Northcote, but we also need private sector initiatives like Three Kings to meet future demand.
This development has been delayed by more than five years since it was first proposed and has been subject to over 100 consultation meetings and dozens of High Court, Environment Court and commissioner hearings.
These types of delays are at the core of Auckland’s housing as they prevent the building sector being able to respond more quickly to changes in population.
The Government is developing new urban development legislation to streamline these processes for projects of this type in the future.
The challenges
The challenges to get the development across the line have further vindicated this Government’s reforms to make freeing up land a priority.
We are already doing this with initiatives such as the Crown Land Programme, Housing Accords, Special Housing Areas and amendments to the Resource Management Act. And since my last column, the Auckland Council was named as one of the successful applicants for the $1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Large-scale subdivisions at Whenuapai and Redhills will introduce a projected 10,500 houses into Auckland’s housing stocks, easing pressures on other parts of Auckland including the Mt Roskill electorate.
Dr Parmjeet Parmar is Member of Parliament on National Party List.
