The Waitaha Canterbury Regional Housing Strategic Plan outlines a shared direction and actions to address housing challenges across the Canterbury region.
The Challenge
The Canterbury Mayoral Forum aimed to develop a regional housing strategic plan that aligns with and supports policies from member councils and the Greater Christchurch Partnership. They were looking to ensure all communities have access to healthy, accessible, and affordable housing.
The region faces issues such as a lack of housing diversity and choice, insufficient long-term rental availability and affordability, and a need for fit-for-purpose policy and regulation.
The Solution
TUA developed the Waitaha/Canterbury Regional Housing Strategic Plan by identifying current and future housing needs, analysing gaps and drivers, and establishing a strategic framework to guide councils. The plan identifies three key priorities: increased housing diversity and choice, increased long-term rental availability and affordability, and fit-for-purpose policy and regulation. TUA also identified a "menu" of actions and a toolbox of levers for councils to utilise, along with overarching advocacy opportunities for the Canterbury Mayoral Forum.
The Journey
TUA combined its research expertise with a deep understanding of housing levers and policy, enabled the creation of a data-driven strategy and action plan. Due to holding existing regional expertise, TUA was able to leverage previous work in the Canterbury region, including supporting the Greater Christchurch Partnership on early work for the Joint Housing Action Plan, which provided a foundation of existing information and material about the local context and best practices, speeding up the initial phase.
Working in collaborative partnership was also a key part of this journey, with TUA inviting Kāinga Maha to join the project team, bringing their real-world experience in delivering housing in partnership with councils and iwi, as well as extensive knowledge in operating within the funding, finance, and policy settings being discussed.
