Urbanism Downunder conference

Thank you for the opportunity to make the opening comments at this conference.

It’s great to see such a good attendance of people from within New Zealand and abroad, including urban designers, architects, town planners, landscape architects, policy analysts and developers who are committed to making our towns and cities better places to live and work.

The conference will enable us to share best practice and learn from each other's experiences.

Our cities are generally good places in which to live. The Quality of Life survey in 2002 found that residents had a strong sense of pride in their cities, with Wellington scoring an approval rating of 87 per cent, Christchurch 84 per cent, and Dunedin 82 per cent. Likewise, an international survey of quality of life in 215 cities in 2005 ranked Auckland 8th and Wellington 14th in the world.

That should not, however, encourage complacency about the many pressures on our towns and cities. I hope that this conference will promote proactive strategies for addressing these problems and building a better future. Our towns and cities are experiencing rapid growth. Auckland in particular is growing by more than 800 people a week and is predicted to reach 2 million before 2050.

While we are steadily improving our energy efficiency, energy demand is still rising inexorably, and we need to plan for increased supply, particularly to service the growth in and around Auckland. Vehicle use is also increasing – each year there are an additional 13,000 cars on Auckland’s already congested roads. This is contributing to air pollution and greenhouse emissions.
House prices are also continuing to rise – over the last 15 years they have increased by 3.5 per cent a year in real terms. In some cities we are already beginning to see the consequences with a shortage of affordable housing.

What we are building is also changing. We are moving away from the norm of a single detached house. In Auckland up to 30 per cent of residential building consents over the last five years have been for multi-unit developments. The quality of some has not been up to standard in terms of design and quality. Leaky buildings, and who should meet the responsibility for them, have been a major issue of controversy.

Our towns and cities will also have to cope with changing demographic trends. For example, our population is ageing – it is predicted that in 50 years time one in four New Zealanders will be aged over 65.

An integrated approach to the future management of our urban areas is necessary for us to respond effectively to these and other issues. Quality urban design is an essential part of this.

Central government itself needs to become more integrated in its response to urban issues. Government has a role to play in shaping urban outcomes through its statutory framework, policies and strategies.

It has a major role through the development of urban infrastructure such as roads and transport systems, courts, hospitals, schools, housing, prisons and police stations. It has a role as a capability builder through its activities in gathering information, research, education and skill development.

The appointment in 2002 of my colleague Marian Hobbs as Minister with Responsibility for Urban Affairs is an indication that central government recognises the need for it to show leadership.

In 2003, the government published its Sustainable Development Programme of Action. This set out the government’s view of the way forward and some initial directions on the journey towards sustainable development. One of four initial action areas was defined as ‘Sustainable Cities’, and has had an initial focus on Auckland where we are working there in partnership with local government on a number of successful projects.

At its most basic a school travel programme encourages our kids to walk to school while more complex objectives aim for a strong commitment in Auckland that every new public building should be made environmentally sustainable by incorporating measures such as energy efficient lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

The Urban Design Protocol is an important milestone in the future of our cities. The Protocol recognises the critical importance of quality urban design to the future success of our towns and cities.

2005 is also designated the Year of the Built Environment, which aims to celebrate our urban achievements and raise community awareness of built environment issues and how they affect people’s lives.

Lastly I want to also touch on a new initiative that comes within my portfolio as Minister of Justice. The Ministry of Justice’s Crime Prevention Unit, in collaboration with Wellington City Council, is currently developing ‘Crime Prevention through Environmental Design’ (CPTED) guidelines for New Zealand as part of its Safer Communities Action Plan.

‘Crime Prevention through Environmental Design’ is based on the idea that people’s behaviour, and likelihood of criminal offending, is influenced by the design of the environment. It involves applying design initiatives to minimise the potential for places to facilitate and support criminal behaviour, and is a key component of good urban design.

The draft guidelines provide an overview of these principles and some generic models for implementing them at a local level. The aim is to encourage local authorities to develop and implement their own crime reduction strategies.
Tomorrow afternoon the Crime Prevention Unit will be leading a workshop on the draft guidelines.

One practical and successful example of the application of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles in New Zealand is in the work undertaken by Palmerston North City Council in the city square. The project team there has devised a plan to make the square a safe and vital part of the city including improving lighting and removing areas where entrapment or anti-social behaviour could take place. Changes have achieved a significant reduction in crime.

Local government and the private sector have a critical role to play in achieving good urban outcomes on the ground.

The Auckland Mayoral Taskforce on Urban Design puts forward a coordinated programme of action to ensure that we raise the standard of the quality of buildings and places in our largest city.

Manukau City Council has taken initiatives to ensure that the new Flat Bush town centre delivers high quality urban outcomes. The council owns the land, has developed a strong and visionary master plan and has set up an independent delivery vehicle to make it happen which will set a high standard in New Zealand for this type of development.

In Wellington the development of the waterfront has been a major success as a place that people use and really value. Key ingredients have been a strong design-led vision, an independent delivery vehicle and land ownership.

In Christchurch, the City Council has also delivered a number of notable new public buildings that set high standards of architecture and design. These include the Christchurch Art Gallery, the New Brighton Library and, at a more intimate level, some excellent examples of social housing projects such as the Beckenham development.

In Dunedin, the city is working in partnership with a developer on an exciting and creative proposal to revitalise their harbourside area and reconnect it with the city.

To conclude, I would like to highlight three themes that have emerged from work done on the initiatives I have outlined – these themes are key building blocks that we need to put in place to provide for a better urban future for all New Zealanders.

The first is leadership. We need strong leadership across the board to make the changes necessary to deliver our desired urban futures, both at local and national level. This leadership role involves developing a clear vision and a shared sense of direction. But it can also require people and organisations to move beyond their ‘comfort-zone’ and to take responsibility for areas that aren’t within their core functions.

Leadership comes at many levels – and your role as leaders in your fields and in pushing the boundaries in your organisations is critical.

The second is urban research. We need good research to underpin our urban strategies and inform decision-makers. While we are a small country and have limited funding, we can make more of what we have through better networks that share information within and across all our sectors. This conference is itself an important opportunity to share information.

The third theme is capacity and skills. I think we should acknowledge the shortage of people with the right skills in urban management and work towards building our capacity to meet the challenges we face. How our educational sector responds will be critical, as will the training that we can provide in-house to up-skill staff and whether we can tempt back some of highly skilled graduates from abroad.

As a government we are developing programmes to address all three of these areas and we look forward to working in partnership with you to make sure we have these fundamentals in place to deliver the quality towns and cities we are all looking for.

I wish you well for a successful conference and a positive outcome from your deliberations.