Govt welcomes draft Productivity Commission report on housing

The Government welcomes the Productivity Commission’s draft report on using land for housing, Finance Minister Bill English says.

“In September last year, the Government asked the Productivity Commission to investigate ways to improve land use regulation and infrastructure provision for housing by local authorities,” Mr English says.

This draft paper follows the 2012 Productivity Commission report which highlighted that the most important thing for housing affordability is to increase the supply of houses.

“That is why the Government is focused on special housing areas, reforms to the Resource Management Act and making better use of our Crown owned land – for example we are redeveloping Crown owned land in Tāmaki to add an extra 5,000 houses,” Mr English says. “The new Productivity Commission report will help inform the next steps in our housing work programme.

“Local authority processes such as planning, zoning and the provision of roads and water infrastructure also clearly have an impact on land availability and housing supply – which is why we asked the Commission to look at this important issue in more detail.”

The Productivity Commission is seeking submissions on the draft report, available at www.productivity.govt.nz, by 4 August 2015.

Mr English has ministerial responsibility for the Productivity Commission.