U-turn season starts with housing intensification - Matthew Hooton

Opinion by Matthew Hooton NZ Herald· 16 Jan, 2026

Top of the list is dropping plans to force Auckland Council to change zoning rules to allow another two million homes to be built over the next 30 years. The U-turn, which could come as soon as Monday, is a win for Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown but also for National, since it denies Act, New Zealand First and Labour a potent issue on which to raid the blue vote.

Without the U-turn, Act could look forward to an election year spent defending its voters in Epsom and Tāmaki from National’s Wellington diktat allowing apartment blocks to be built on either side of their homes, without even the infrastructure investment to support them.