Auckland Council's next planning committee meeting is taking place next Thursday.
The topics list includes a decision on mass housing reforms, which could see rates of housing intensification rise across Tamaki Makaurau.
To learn more about what this means, Liam had a chat with councillor Pippa Coom on our regular City Counselling segment, also chatting to her about the upcoming mayoral race.
Jonny and Bryce discuss the Regulatory Standards Bill which just passed it's first reading under urgency in parliament sponsored by the Act Party's David Seymour. The bill was first created two decades ago by the Business Roundtable and proposes that each new piece of legislation passed by the house needs to consider it from the lens of business interests and property rights. This will be the fourth time the bill has been put forward to the house.
This week State Housing Action Network sent a letter to the Board and senior managers of the Housing New Zealand Corporation calling for their resignation. Jemima spoke with John Minto, the Convenor of SHAN, about why this letter was sent and why there needs to be a "transformational culture change" in HNZC. Jemima began the interview by asking, what SHAN's letter to HNZC is all about.
Producer Laura Kvigstad spoke with the Spokesperson for Central Auckland’s State Housing Action Network, Gael Baldock, about what has been dubbed the ‘meth testing fiasco’. Residents of state housing were evicted on the basis of meth tests that were formerly used as a safety measurement. The organization is now calling for a formal apology and compensation for the evicted.
Recent reports have come out suggesting a correlation between poor housing and respiratory infections amongst young children. In response, Child Poverty Action Group is calling for housing WoF's as prevention for illness.
Jeni Carwright from the Child Poverty Action Group tells us more about how housing WoF's could prevent life long health complications for young children.
Today the government announced a number of housing measures aimed at helping first-home buyers get on the property ladder. Some of these include, increasing the income cap for first home grants, expanding the rules around who can access 5% deposits and a $3.8 billion injection into the country's housing supply.
News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to Jarrod Kerr, the Chief Economist at Kiwibank, about what impact the government expects these measures to have and whether they will make a difference to New Zealand's exorbitant housing market.
Jemima then talks to Lesley Harris, Director and Representative of the First Home Buyers Club about the hurdles that exist for first-home buyers and whether the government's new policies will effectively mitigate them.
The Loafer's Lodge fire has demanded better scrutiny around the management of New Zealand's boarding houses but problems have been going on for years and with weak regulation it is very difficult for councils to push for better standards. MP Jenny Salesa has a private member's bill in the biscuit tin that proposes a register be set up at the industry's cost that will provide better oversight of the sector. Alex Bonham talked to her about how this would work and how it would improve protections for vulnerable people and expose bad landlords.
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