Legislative history
On 19 October, the Labour and National parties supported the bipartisan Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Bill during its first reading. The bill aims to build 105,500 new homes over the next eight years by allowing three homes of up to three storeys to be built on most sites without requiring a resource consent process. The Government planned to pass the bill by the end of 2021, with local councils implementing it from August 2022. [4] [5] In addition, the bill was supported by the Green and Māori parties but was opposed by the libertarian ACT Party. [6]
The bill underwent an expedited select committee stage, taking several weeks rather than months. According to the National Party's deputy leader Nicola Wilis, the select committee made several amendments to allow for landscaped areas, greater outdoor spaces, and to reduce the height of houses in relation to their boundaries. Other changes included giving local territorial authorities the authority to exclude "unsuitable areas" such as those subject to natural hazards, historically significant sites, and areas that would not be able to support the level of housing that the bill specified. [7]
The Bill passed its second reading on 7 December with the support of the Labour, National, Green, and Māori parties. Only the ACT Party opposed the bill. During the second reading, the bill was amended to reduce the maximum height that people can build to on their boundary from 6 metres to 4 metres. [8] [9]
On 14 December, the Bill passed its third and final reading with the bipartisan support of most parties except ACT, which claimed that the legislation would do little to address the cause of the country's housing crisis. Under the legislation, local territorial authorities including the Auckland Council, Hamilton City Council, Tauranga City Council, Wellington City Council and the Christchurch City Council will have to allow the building of up to three houses with a maximum of three storeys on the vast majority of urban sections without requiring resource consents. [7] The passage of the bill was welcomed by both Housing Minister Megan Woods and Environment Minister David Parker, who claimed that it would allow more affordable housing to be built. [2] By contrast, ACT housing spokesperson and deputy leader Brooke van Velden claimed that the new bipartisan law would not resolve the housing shortage but would instead create more sewage on the streets. [7]
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