Kāinga Ora submissions on district plans

As the Government’s urban development authority, we enable, facilitate and deliver homes of all types in the right areas through a range of urban development methods, including working with local councils on urban planning.

We support the positive outcomes the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD) and the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) can bring to communities. We work with both local and central government to ensure the implementation of the NPS-UD can work to achieve well-functioning urban environments.

District Plans

District Plans (and unitary plans where they are required) are statutory planning documents developed and administered by New Zealand's territorial authorities. They are required under the Resource Management Act (RMA) and are the rulebooks managing where, and how, activities and development can be carried out.

When territorial authorities prepare new, or updates to, statutory planning documents, residents, landowners, tangata whenua, infrastructure providers, Government agencies, and other key stakeholders are invited to make submissions on the draft plan as part of processes set out under the RMA.

Why we submit

We submit on plans to support consistent, efficient and effective application of the NPS-UD and MDRS, so that the development of enough homes is enabled in places where there is good access to jobs, education, services and amenity; and additionally, so that we collectively work towards meeting the current shortfall in the number of homes needed to improve housing affordability across the motu.

We’re interested not just as a social housing provider but as a landowner, a developer of residential housing, and an enabler of quality, well-functioning urban developments.

As a Crown agency, we’re entrusted with taxpayer funds to deliver on our mandate of enabling more social, market and affordable homes to be built in the places people want to live. By participating in plan-making processes and advocating for the consistent application of the Government’s housing and urban development policies and associated legislation, we can help bring longer-term certainty for both public and private developers on where and how homes can be built, enabling both time and cost efficiencies across the industry.

Below we link to submissions we have made on proposed plans, or plan changes, for Tier 1 and 2 councils, as well as a selection of Tier 3 councils*. This page is updated as additional relevant plan change submissions are published by councils.

The process followed by councils to decide on proposed plans and plan changes requires submitters, like Kāinga Ora, to prepare ‘further submissions’, as well as preparing and submitting evidence for any hearings. This can involve changes to what was sought in our original submissions.

For any supporting documents or additional information around the plan change process, please refer to the relevant council’s website.

*The National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD)(external link) lists which councils are Tier 1 and 2, and also provides a definition for determining if a council is Tier 3