On 25 May the government set out its 2017/18 Budget. Here are the key announcements relating to Auckland Council’s priorities for the region.
Housing on Crown land
The government has previously announced the Crown Building Project, which will oversee the construction of 34,211 new houses in Auckland over 10 years. This includes $2.2 billion over the first four years.
In today’s budget, the government said the Hobsonville Land Company will lead the project, building housing in Northcote, Mt Roskill and Tāmaki, in addition to Hobsonville.
Of the houses built, 13,540 will be social houses, of which 8275 will replace existing houses demolished to enable development of an additional 5265 houses.
The remaining 20,671 new houses will be for sale in the open market. The government has indicated that around 35 per cent of these dwellings will be classified as ‘affordable’, costing less than $650,000.
Infrastructure
In December 2016, the government announced that $5.4 billion would be spent on infrastructure over four years. In the lead-up to today’s budget, further capital spending was announced – $1.2 billion over four years for a variety of infrastructure, and $812 million to repair the Picton to Christchurch highway.
More clarity was given on how the new funds would be spent. Over the next year, central government’s contribution to the City Rail Link (CRL) will be $436 million.
Screen grants
The budget allocates $303 million to support the attraction of international productions to New Zealand over the next four years.
This is anticipated to provide long-term economic benefits to Auckland. Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) estimates that in 2016, Auckland accounted for 64 per cent or $431 million of New Zealand’s gross overseas screen production revenue. This follows an earlier ATEED announcement in March to set up a new film studio complex in Kumeū, west Auckland.
