{"id":241972,"date":"2026-01-20T05:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T05:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/241972\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T05:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T05:07:08","slug":"david-seymour-says-auckland-housing-debate-become-highly-politicised-says-epsom-residents-not-anti-intensification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/241972\/","title":{"rendered":"David Seymour says Auckland housing debate become \u2018highly politicised\u2019, says Epsom residents not \u2018anti-intensification\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

He believed planning should be left alone while focus is put on speeding up consenting and addressing other roadblocks. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo have we contributed to it? Yeah, sure. We\u2019ve opposed these heavy-handed effects, but ultimately, we didn\u2019t start them. We\u2019ve pushed them back at various times.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Act'sAct’s David Seymour previously lobbied for changes to the plan. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Seymour said upcoming changes to the current intensification plan<\/a> \u2013 called Plan Change 120 \u2013 will be a \u201csolution designed to mediate a number of competing interests\u201d, but won\u2019t divulge details to be \u201crespectful of my colleagues and [to let] them work through their own processes\u201d. <\/p>\n

The current plan, which was open to public submissions until last month, would enable two million potential homes to be developed<\/a> (though this doesn\u2019t mean they will all be built) in Auckland, with greater density and building heights in some inner-city suburbs, particularly around transport centres. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s aspects that everyone agrees on, right? So like train stations, and to some extent, corridors. No one\u2019s really disagreeing about that,\u201d Seymour said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I find, for as long as I\u2019ve represented Epsom, we\u2019ve polled this extensively, people in Epsom are not anti-intensification, but when you say, \u2018oh, we\u2019re going to have a 50m tower in the middle of a whole lot of single-family homes looking into everyone\u2019s backyards and their swing sets and their pools\u2019, they say, \u2018well, why would you do that\u2019? <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you say, \u2018well the area around that train station over there is going to go to seven storeys, and then a block out it\u2019s going to go to four storeys and then a block back from that is going to be two storeys\u2019, and they say, \u2018oh, okay, so there\u2019s going to be sort of a bit of a pyramid around the train station\u2019. People say, \u2018well, that sounds like London\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

The \u2018great tragedy\u2019<\/p>\n

The previous Plan Change 78 would have incorporated Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS), introduced under Labour and initially supported by National, into planning. The MDRS is well known for the \u20183×3\u2019 rule of generally allowing three dwellings of three storeys on sections. <\/p>\n

Seymour was among those who rallied against the MDRS, which he has said was a \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d approach to intensification. As opposition grew to those rules, National changed its policy to allow councils<\/a> to opt out of the MDRS if they could zone for more housing in other ways.<\/p>\n

\"ThereThere was previously bipartisan support for the MDRS, before National backed out. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Last year, the coalition Government allowed Auckland to withdraw Plan Change 78, leading to Plan Change 120. <\/p>\n

Seymour said the \u201cgreat tragedy\u201d had been that after \u201cfour years of Wellington intervening in the Auckland planning policies\u201d, it \u201chasn\u2019t actually had any effect yet\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlan Change 78 barely or didn\u2019t come into effect, so that was the whole 2021 gambit, which was crazy. Now we\u2019ve had Plan Change 120, which appears will be changed.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said that if, following the Auckland Unitary Plan passing in 2016, there had been more emphasis placed on improving consent times and infrastructure connections, \u201cthen we could probably actually be quite a long way ahead in terms of housing supply than where we are now\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the great frustration, and the other thing about it is that these series of sort of symbolic clashes have highly politicised the issue.\u201d <\/p>\n

For example, he said if someone doesn\u2019t appear to support enabling two million houses, as Plan Change 120 requires, there is outrage. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou end up having this kind of symbolic debate rather than a practical debate of how do you actually make it easier to build more houses faster and cheaper, which is what people actually need. I just shake my head at the whole thing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Having a \u201crational debate\u201d was possible, he said, \u201cbut we just haven\u2019t because it\u2019s all been about, \u2018we\u2019re going to make all of Auckland 3×3\u2019\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like the display of political force is the point of it. It hasn\u2019t actually led to any more homes getting built.\u201d <\/p>\n

On housing affordability, Seymour said he would like to see house price to income ratios come down. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhether or not that\u2019s achieved by incomes going up or house prices going down is an argument. I\u2019ve always said, \u2018look, the truth is, politicians can\u2019t control it\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s because, he said, it takes too long for MPs\u2019 actions to impact the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lead time for politicians to influence that, and then those houses have to actually be built, and they\u2019ve got to go to market, and people got to rebalance supply and demand, then that affects prices. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not something that you can actually do. I think what we should be doing is just have good policy. If someone can build something, and it\u2019s not going to severely disadvantage what someone else already has, let them build it.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has made progress, like with changes to building material regulations.<\/p>\n

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s Chief Political Reporter, based in the Press Gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He believed planning should be left alone while focus is put on speeding up consenting and addressing other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23503,142195,27299,40923,51,142197,6726,12683,142196,6284,4101,42678,26221,49776,50242,3339,296,19133,111,43,139,5006,69,142194,5060,530,312,1973,16797,142198,1361,165,9873,27300,6859,18090,4276,1533,6730],"class_list":["post-241972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-acts","tag-antiintensification","tag-arent","tag-ask","tag-auckland","tag-backyards","tag-become","tag-buildings","tag-constructed","tag-david","tag-debate","tag-electorate","tag-epsom","tag-everyones","tag-highly","tag-housing","tag-into","tag-looking","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-politicised","tag-pools","tag-residents","tag-says","tag-sets","tag-seymour","tag-swing","tag-that","tag-their","tag-theyll","tag-theyre","tag-told","tag-towering","tag-why","tag-will","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}