Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill

5 Outline

• (1) The general scheme and effect of this Act are set out in the following subsections.

  (2) Subpart 1 of this Part deals with preliminary matters, including specifying the purpose of this Act, repealing certain of its provisions after 3 years, interpretation, and providing for the power to amend Schedule 1.

  (3) Subpart 2 of this Part deals with—

  • (a) matters relating to housing accords (which may be entered into between the Minister and territorial authorities in the regions or districts listed in Schedule 1 and which provide for the Minister and the relevant territorial authority to work together to address housing supply and affordability issues in the district of the territorial authority):

  • (b) matters relating to qualifying developments in special housing areas (to which the powers in Part 2 to grant resource consents, change plans, and vary proposed plans apply), including—

    • (i) the criteria that must be met for a development to be a qualifying development in a special housing area; and

    • (ii) the making of Orders in Council prescribing specified criteria for qualifying developments in special housing areas and parts of special housing areas:

  • (c) matters relating to special housing areas, including—

    • (i) the making of Orders in Council declaring areas to be special housing areas; and

    • (ii) requirements that must be met before a special housing area may be established within the district of a territorial authority that is a party to a housing accord.

  (4) Part 2 deals with resource consents and plan changes and variations to proposed plans in relation to qualifying developments in special housing areas, including—

  • (a) providing for territorial authorities that have entered into housing accords and, in certain areas where no housing accord is in force, the chief executive of the Ministry responsible for administering this Act to be the agencies authorised to perform functions and exercise powers under the Part; and

  • (ab) providing for regional councils to be the agencies authorised to perform functions and exercise powers under the Part where proposed activities require resource consents under the rules of regional plans or proposed regional plans and a territorial authority is not a unitary authority; and

  • (b) empowering authorised agencies to accept and consider resource consent applications for qualifying developments in special housing areas; and

  • (c) providing for requests for plan changes and variations to proposed plans to be made to accord territorial authorities in conjunction with resource consent applications, and providing for processes for dealing with those requests; and

  • (d) the functions and powers of authorised agencies in relation to resource consent applications and requests for plan changes and variations to proposed plans, and the delegation of those powers.

  (5) Schedule 1 lists the regions and districts identified as having housing supply and affordability issues.

  (6) Schedule 2 contains transitional provisions. These set out the arrangements that apply if a special housing area is disestablished or a housing accord is terminated. They also include a power to make regulations prescribing transitional provisions that apply as well as, or instead of, the provisions set out in the schedule.

  (7) This section is a guide only to the general scheme and effect of this Act and does not limit or affect the other provisions of the Act.