Britain and New Zealand are 11,000 miles apart but face the same problem: homes cost too much and arrive too slowly. After inflation, New Zealand’s house prices rose 256 per cent between 2000 and 2021, the sharpest in the OECD. Britain has not escaped either. Too many families are locked out of ownership, too many renters have too little choice, and too many young people look at the ladder and see the first rung has gone. If the centre right wants to win the next decade, we must be the ones who make housing abundant and affordable again.
The good news is that New Zealand’s recent reforms show what works, and how the UK can adapt it. First, stop chasing showy fixes and sort the fundamentals. New Zealand tried political sugar hits. They did not move the dial. The lesson is simple: empty words do not build homes. Supply does. That means freeing up land where people want to live and putting in place honest, durable ways to fund the pipes, roads and parks that make new neighbourhoods work – as well as the school places and the GPs.
Second, upzoning works when you are serious. In 2016, Auckland adopted the Auckland Unitary Plan and unlocked large parts of the city for building. Within five years, home construction doubled, particularly through gentle density in well located suburbs. Since then, Auckland’s prices have grown more slowly than the rest of the country, and rents are markedly lower than they otherwise would have been. When you let people build, they build. Pressure eases.
Third, standardise and simplify. New Zealand found councils had created 1,175 bespoke zones, each with its own maze of rules. The result was delay, litigation and endless scope for objections about trivia, from façade colours to the angle of a front door. The reform now under way replaces this thicket with a small family of standard zones that councils apply locally. You keep local discretion where it matters, but you remove the bureaucratic booby traps that turn every street into a battlefield. Britain should do the same. Fewer zones. Clear national rules. Swift, rules based consent where standards are met.
Fourth, match planning reform with infrastructure reform. Upzoning without funding is a cul de sac. New Zealand is moving to a flexible model that embeds a simple idea: a right to build, provided the infrastructure is paid for transparently. That can mean user pays where appropriate, local levies that are actually spent on the promised works, and independent vehicles that raise finance and deliver quickly. For Britain, that means replacing opaque haggling with predictable, bankable mechanisms so councils, developers and communities can see what will be built, when, and who pays.
Fifth, make planning representative, not performative. As the Representative Planning Group rightly point out, too often the loudest voices dominate consultations, while the silent majority is ignored. Recent work by Leeds Building Society and Public First shows the public broadly favours more homes, especially with visible infrastructure and good design, but wants a process that reflects the whole community rather than a self selected few.
New Zealand’s Lower Hutt City shows how to do this. Worried about an ageing population and rising costs, Lower Hutt ran a citizens’ panel drawn to be representative of local residents. The panel was far more supportive of well located growth than the usual consultation responses. On the back of that mandate, Lower Hutt allowed buildings up to 12 metres in key centres, enabled three storey terraces in suitable areas, relaxed minimum lot sizes and scrapped blanket parking mandates. Permits per 1,000 residents rose severalfold, and actual building followed, with a surge in terraces that families could afford. That is inclusive planning with teeth.
Britain can copy the method. Use citizens’ panels and statistically robust surveys to set local housing envelopes and design codes. Give weight to those representative exercises in law, so planning committees cannot be blown off course by narrow, unrepresentative campaigns. Tie every growth area to a simple, rules based infrastructure package that is costed, funded and delivered alongside the homes. Publish the trade offs. Then stick to them.
These are not theoretical points. They are practical steps that have delivered more homes in New Zealand’s largest city and a fast growing neighbour, and are now being extended nationwide. They can be applied here without another decade of white papers. Start by identifying transport corridors and town centres ripe for gentle density. Set standardised codes that guarantee quality by rule rather than by taste. Replace discretionary roulette with automatic permission where criteria are met. Ring fence infrastructure funding so new homes bring visible local benefit quickly. Make consultation representative by default, not optional.
There is also a political truth. Short termism kills reform. Housing policy must outlast reshuffles and electoral cycles. Say plainly that more homes mean change to skylines and streets, and that the status quo already has a cost: higher rents, longer commutes, later families, slower growth. Make the trade off visible and fair, then hold the line.
We both believe this is a conservative cause. Margaret Thatcher was right that homeownership teaches responsibility and lets families pass something on. Ownership is not a niche interest. It is the beating heart of a free society. If first time buyers cannot get a foothold, belief in the system erodes. If they can, communities stabilise, wealth spreads and opportunity deepens.
So here is our offer. In New Zealand, liberalised land, standardised zoning, representative consultation and honest infrastructure funding are putting supply back on the field. In Britain, we can take the same medicine, tailored to local needs. Empower city regions to zone for growth and hold them to delivery. Cut the tangle of bespoke rules. Make consent predictable. Fund the basics up front and recover costs fairly. Reward places that build with a bigger share of the proceeds of growth.
We intend to choose growth. We intend to choose ownership. And we will make that crystal clear at the Conservative YIMBY Builders Rally next Tuesday in Manchester. Fix the fundamentals. Free the land. Fund the pipes. Make planning representative. Let people build. Then stand back and watch a property owning democracy renew itself.