Study Tour 2019: Community Wealth Building and City Deals

The shared experience of Covid-19 across New Zealand homes brought a great sense of collectivity to the surface. It also exposed the realities of the vulnerable and the issues of housing that are in need of being addressed.  The pandemic forced us to rethink the way in which we interact with our homes, our parks, local stores and businesses, and ask: Can these be designed differently? This post-covid period draws similarities to the post-war period that saw large investments into housing and urban development. The question for today is what will we do differently with the opportunity in front of us? 

This report argues for a systemic change in how we think about housing and urban development. Lessons from a 2019 study tour highlight the opportunities and challenges for how to approach this differently in New Zealand. 

The report is divided into four sections. These are: 

1. An insight into the current unprecedented opportunity for our generation to respond to the existing crisis of housing and invest in better communities. 
2. Key lessons to learn from examples we visited in the United Kingdom and the United States on housing affordability displacement within large scale development and regeneration programmes and income equality. 
3. A roadmap for transforming housing and urban development in New Zealand through partnerships and cross-sector collaboration, new approaches to governance, strategy and leadership, and prioritising equitable and sustainable housing models. 
4. A summary of how the future of homes and communities in New Zealand are changing. 

The new urban development agenda, Covid-19 and the 2020 ‘Rebuilding Together’ Budget presents a timely opportunity for New Zealand.  

In a post-covid period there is an opportunity to improve how we approach the development of homes and communities, to transform how we meet the needs of our communities and to support our collective social, cultural and economic wellbeing in New Zealand.