The Government’s newly announced Special Housing Areas in Drury and Glenbrook will condemn thousands of Aucklanders to a life of “transport poverty”, the Green Party said today.
“Nick Smith is trying to sell these SHAs as the magic bullet to ‘fix’ the Auckland housing crisis, but the real cost of these homes can’t be measured just by their over-inflated sale prices,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said today.
“These houses are going to be built on land miles away from the city with no viable public transport links in sight.
“Because this Government is obsessed with building motorways and with pushing Auckland’s city limits further and further out, the people who live in these houses will be forced to spend hundreds of dollars a week just to drive to and from work.
“And it’s not just going to hit individuals at the petrol pump; we know that having Aucklanders sitting in traffic jams is terrible for the country’s economic productivity, the environment, and for people’s health and quality of life.
“These developments will not make Auckland a more affordable city or a more liveable city.
“Instead of plonking over-priced subdivisions down in rural and semi-rural areas, the Government should be pushing for quality medium- to high-density housing around well-funded and well-serviced public transport corridors.
“This is yet another sign that the Government has no real clue about how to create more affordable housing for New Zealanders,” said Mrs Turei.
