Housing area data woeful: councillor

Chris Darby, deputy chairman of the Auckland Development Committee. Photo / Sarah Ivey

An Auckland councillor has expressed frustration at the lack of information and progress on the city's special housing areas.

Chris Darby, deputy chairman of the Auckland Development Committee, said he had sought the data on progress many weeks ago and deputy mayor Penny Hulse supported him in his requests.

"I'm disappointed and that's why I've been asking for this information formally since September 9," Darby said.

The Herald revealed how only 102 residences are known to have been built two years into a three-year timeframe target to get 39,000 consents for new Auckland homes and new residential sections.

Housing Minister Nick Smith claimed the number was actually higher and expressed discontent that finished houses were being assessed, not consents.

But Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford said people could not live in a consent and the accord's result was pitiful.

Darby said he wanted far more extensive information, including the date of request for a special housing area, date of council confirmation, what type of houses were being built, the location and whether houses were to be built in greenfield or brownfield areas, resource consent application and consenting dates, building consent application and consenting dates, when works started, when the final Code Compliance Certificate was issued, when the residence was occupied, and the total development contributions either due or collected.

"The SHA legislation [has some] serious gaps, the biggest being the lack of an accompanying bulk infrastructure plan together with confirmation of government funding to deliver the infrastructure. The complete lack of meaningful progress data doesn't allow either council or the Government to read the success or failure of the SHA programme.

"Until we receive the information in a format as I've outlined, we're none the wiser on how Auckland's housing crisis is benefiting from the SHA legislation," Darby said.

Ree Anderson, housing project director, says the special housing areas have created a pipeline of about 50,000 homes to be built eventually, including about 5000 a year in each of the next three years.

"The housing project office monitors all stages of the qualifying resource consent process from pre-application through to the issuing of consents. This data is now being enhanced so that the same information will be recorded against each SHA area. The first set of this data will be reported to the Auckland Development Committee in December," Anderson said.