Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

As if this week’s not tough enough and we’re not rarked up enough already, now they want to carve up heritage houses for more development. A new bill aims to force councils to allow more dense housing. The "new intensification rules will allow buildings of up to three storeys on most sites in cities without any need for resource consent from August 2022,” we read yesterday. This is basically a green light to development and a way of addressing housing supply. Councils have previously made access to land difficult; this turns the tables. It takes more power off Councils and reduces impediments to progress, and that’s no bad thing. What might be ruffling the feathers of the latte set however, is whether this snazzy new drive for development winds up on their front door step. A South Auckland Councillor has said that it needs to include wealthier suburbs too. So those sitting pretty in a 200-year-old villa in Remuera, or Kelburn or Fendalton may well be looking down the barrel of a 3-storey development going up