National’s support in opposition for greater urban density was shot down by its own caucus and its second attempt has to get past a hostile Act Party

Housing Minister Chris Bishop is confident his party will support a new push for urbanization in New Zealand's biggest cities, despite facing a caucus backlash during the last attempt. 

Speaking prior to a caucus meeting on Tuesday, he said the entire Government was behind his proposed plan which would see cities both grow taller and expand into the countryside.

“The National Party caucus, and the coalition government, is pro-housing. We are pro-housing growth and we are pro-measures to improve productivity in New Zealand”. 

He said the party had taken a “pragmatic approach” to the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) after councils and communities asked for “more flexibility and discretion”. 

“But ultimately, our agenda is about housing growth. It's about going out at the edge of our cities and going up inside our cities,” he said. 

The MDRS was a bipartisan policy drawn up in 2021 by Labour ministers Megan Woods and David Parker, in collaboration with National MPs Judith Collins and Nicola Willis. 

It allowed three homes to be built three stories high without resource consent on most residential sites in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, and Christchurch.

But before the new rules could take effect, Collins was replaced as National leader by Christopher Luxon.

Under pressure in the lead up to the election last year, the new leader suddenly announced National had “got the MDRS wrong” and had Bishop announce an alternative a few days later. 

A few days after that, National's Tāmaki MP Simon O’Connor took some credit for the policy reversal on a social media livestream saying he’d been lobbying for it “week after week” in caucus. 

The blanket density policy was understood to be unpopular among homeowners in city suburbs still dominated by single family homes, despite massive population growth. 

Softening the MDRS policy was not enough to save O’Connor, who was ousted from his electorate during the 2023 election by Act Party deputy leader Brooke Van Velden.

Opposition to blanket densification in Tāmaki was one of the key local issues which won her the seat and helped carry her into Cabinet where she will get a say on future housing policy. 

ACT-ing up

Asked if she supported housing growth in her electorate, Van Velden said that any density decisions were up to councils.

“The coalition document is quite clear that it makes the medium density residential standard optional for councils. So, that's now a question for councils,” she said.

Residents she spoke with on the streets had a lot of concerns about blanket housing rules.

“Throughout the process of talking to people in Tāmaki , there was a concern mainly around the lack of infrastructure investment with density”. 

A lot of the streets in the electorate had water pipes that were 100 years old and wouldn’t cope with more housing. Further density would need to come with a new set of pipes. 

“What I'm very clear on, as the MP for Tāmaki , is that I want to see proper infrastructure investment so that our piping networks are upgraded”. 

Act Party leader David Seymour gave a similarly unenthusiastic answer when asked the same question about his Epsom electorate last week. 

He told Interest.co.nz that the Unitary Plan, which took effect eight years ago, already allowed an “enormous amount” of density in the Epsom electorate.

Camilla Belich, a Labour list MP who contested the Epsom electorate, said she had received mixed feedback on the MDRS during her campaign. 

Some owners of larger homes were worried about losing sunlight, while others wanted a walkable city with more local amenities.

“The National Party, and those individuals who know that more livable cities require greater density, should be able to stand up to those who might disagree,” she said.

MPs like Bishop and Willis had been forced to give up a “golden opportunity” for bipartisan housing policy by a different wing of the National Party. 

“I think it's really sad to see people who were willing to stand up and be really brave about what they saw as the future of New Zealand, be overrun by other members of their caucus," Belich said.

New Zealand First’s manifesto also promised to “address and correct” legislation for the intensification of housing that had happened “without consultation”. 

However, elsewhere it seemingly supported six-story urban and three-story suburb developments done in consultation with councils. 

The only references to housing in the National–NZ First coalition agreement was to improve its affordability and build more homes.

Caucus coming around

Judith Collins, now a senior minister, said she was a big supporter of Bishop’s vision for more housing density and welcomed it in her Papakura electorate.

“People have to be able to have houses and it's all very well — I’m not into the NIMBY type attitude,” she said.  

The former leader also had a veiled warning for her colleagues heading into the caucus meeting on Tuesday.  

“We're in government now, people need to make really sensible decisions, and I think people realize we don't want people living in emergency housing any longer than they need to”.

Backbench MPs in suburban electorates appear to be getting the message and are backing the party’s pro-density housing plan.

Dan Bidois, the MP for Northcote, enthusiastically endorsed higher density housing in his Auckland city electorate — at least in principle. 

“There are parts of my community that I don't think density makes sense, given the floods that we experienced last year. But certainly in the right areas, we are for it”. 

Councils had the ability to choose where growth should be zoned and should avoid vulnerable clifftops and areas without sufficient infrastructure, he said.