Opposition parties react to Auckland housing U-turn

Labour says the Housing Minister has been undermined by his leader and colleagues following the announcement to lower the maximum number of houses in Auckland from 2 million to at least 1.6 million.

Meanwhile, ACT leader David Seymour says "we're not there yet" and wants to see the location of the 1.6 million homes before supporting it.

Chris Bishop announced the change to Auckland leaders at the International Convention Centre on Thursday.

Deputy leader and spokesperson for Auckland Carmel Sepuloni said it's a humiliating backdown for Bishop and there's been a relationship breakdown between government ministers.

Sepuloni said there'd been "self-interest" from some MPs, including Epsom's David Seymour and Howick's Simeon Brown, and that they were "concerned with their own leafy suburbs" and the feedback they'd got from their constituents.

"This is a humiliating backdown for Chris Bishop, who has spent months talking up housing reform only to be forced into swallowing a dead rat when Christopher Luxon threw his plan under the bus," Sepuloni said.

She said Bishop had been ambitious for Auckland, "he knows how important housing is", and called it a huge blow for Auckland families looking for affordable homes.

She's concerned about the uncertainty the change brings, given council entered into agreements with government in good faith and "this really turns all of that on its head".

The Greens were similarly frustrated, with co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick saying she'd call it embarrassing if it wasn't "harmful".

"We've been having this debate for longer than I have been involved in politics. Aucklanders and New Zealanders deserve far better."

She said cities weren't museums, and they needed to house people.

Swarbrick said she found it "profoundly ironic" that the government was capitulating to those who own property at the expense of everybody else at a time where the Infrastructure Commission called for "clear-eyed, evidence-based criteria" for development in New Zealand.

She asked if Bishop was willing to show his spine and do the things he said he believed in.

Neither Labour nor the Greens would rule out making further changes or campaigning to make further changes to the plan.

Nor did the ACT leader give his full endorsement for the change, with Seymour saying it was good progress the government was making changes, "but we need to see what 1.6 million looks like before we vote for it".

He said when parliament voted for 2 million homes, "we hadn't seen the maps from the council".

"They had kept them hidden and basically released them the next day. This time, we need to see what 1.6 million looks like before we vote for it."

Seymour said people did want housing intensification but they wanted to see it being consistent and looking sensible, saying it would be "crazy" to have a field of single family homes with a 150 metre tower in the middle.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was pleased the change was happening, saying a lower number of homes was "doing better" and the change was more "attuned to the actual realities of future growth" rather than "wild speculation".

"You've got to compromise, in my view. I've talked to a lot of planners there. We could have done better, and we still can."

Brown: 'I'm not sitting up here to have David Seymour tell me what to do'

After the speech, Auckland mayor Wayne Brown fired a warning shot that he would not be dictated by Cabinet.

ACT leader David Seymour said the reduced number was a decision in principle and still needed legislation passed.

"The government will now await Auckland Council producing a summary of how the zones will change before legislating," Seymour said.

But Wayne Brown suggested otherwise.

"We're not doing this in order to go to the government and to the Cabinet and ask for their approval," he said.

"I mean, the Cabinet mostly don't even live in Auckland, so that's not going to happen."

Brown said the council would "stick with the two million and carry on" if it had to do that.

"I mean, I'm not sitting up here to have David Seymour tell me what to do."

Brown said both he and Chris Bishop were proponents of intensification "in sensible areas" around train stations and bus routes.

On the whittling down from 2 million homes, Brown said people were focused on the wrong thing.

"And that was, we weren't going to have 2 million houses, and it was just a concept that was beyond the thinking of most people.

"If it calms down some worried elderly residents in Epsom, then that's done its job."

Asked about Brown's comments that the change was an overreach from central government, and he didn't want to seek Cabinet's approval on another plan, Seymour suggested the mayor "be a bit of a democrat" and help inform the public of what 1.6m looks like.

"I don't think he has the right to withhold information that's important to many Aucklanders."

Auckland's deputy mayor Desley Simpson said she agreed with Wayne Brown that the central government should not have veto power over Auckland's planning.

"I believe that Auckland Council should be the decision maker for the intensification plan that they're putting together after listening to Aucklanders," Simpson told Checkpoint.

"What needs to happen now is we need to read, understand and listen to what the people of Auckland said. There are about 10,000 submissions, and we need to make sure we have a sound analysis of that."

But she said Chris Bishop appeared receptive to the mayor's concerns.

"I had a conversation with Minister Bishop and the mayor post the speech, on this very issue. The minister was actually quite relaxed," she said.

"He kind of said 'well, give me a one-pager,' because of course if you have to reduce some of that maximum or theoretical housing capacity, there will be places where the staff have made suggestions for intensification to meet the 2 million, so they will pull back now."

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