KEY POINTS:
New Zealand has an affordable housing issue which will have long-term negative social consequences for the country, a parliamentary committee heard yesterday, but opinions are divided over how to resolve it.
The committee announced in March it would hold an inquiry into housing affordability.
The committee, sitting in Auckland, will also hear submissions from the South Island on the issue in Parliament through a special video link for those who cannot attend.
Chairing yesterday's meeting, independent MP Gordon Copeland said housing affordability would be a big issue for next year's general election.
"We really as a society are going to have to face up to how we will solve this."
Mr Copeland said there had been strong submissions with many saying the social consequences of the current situation continuing were unacceptable.
Land banking and metropolitan urban limits (MULs) came in for tough scrutiny as did the question of how to give developers incentives to subdivide land.
Auckland Regional Council's Paul Walbran defended the MULs, saying they worked to control the city's growth in an efficient and managed way.
"It encourages a range of dwellings but not rabbit hutches."
Among those making submissions was former National Party leader Don Brash, as chairman of the Centre for Resource Management Studies, alongside its director Owen McShane.
Dr Brash told the committee, which included several National Party MPs, it was beyond doubt that tight restrictions on the availability of residential land had a major impact on making housing less affordable.
Local governments throughout the country had made housing more unaffordable with policies of rationing the availability of residential land, he said.
Other measures had also been adopted which had significantly increased the cost of providing sections to the housing market and that time taken to get a consent for even the simplest project had grown, he said.
"We all pay a very high price for these policies. Housing is pushed out of the reach of would-be home buyers, with all of the social disadvantages of declining home ownership."
Dr Brash said he had two recommendations.
Restrictions on the availability of residential land should "simply be outlawed" and Parliament should establish a Resource Management Act regulatory review committee to ensure all rules, regulations and levies imposed by local governments were consistent, he said.
"We have no doubt that these two measures would do more to improve the affordability of housing in New Zealand than anything else policy-makers could do."
Family First national director Bob McCroskie told the committee tax breaks were needed for first time home buyers.
Communities and families benefited when people had a financial interest in owning their own home, he said.
- NZPA
