Mace Ward: Auckland Council Group Recovery Manager on the purchase of flood-affected homes

Auckland Council's set to put $352 million into purchasing homes in high-risk flood zones.  

More than 1200 properties will be bought by the end of the year, and a large amount of the land will be retained for flood resilience. 

Auckland Council Group Recovery Manager Mace Ward told Ryan Bridge it's a significant investment in future resilience for Auckland. 

He says over $1.2 billion will be put in between Crown and Council funding. 

Ward says there’s an opportunity for development, and around 30% of the properties could be redeveloped for residential use. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Augan councils vosted on the future of land destroyed by floods.
By the end of this year, more than twelve hundred
high risk homes will have been purchased at a cost
of three hundred and fifty two million dollars, and a
large amount of the land will be retained for flood resilience.
Mace wards with Auckland Council's recovery offices with me now, Mace.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning, Good morning Ryan.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Quite a bit of land. Where is it all in
clumps or is it individual properties randomly spread out? What
are we talking?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's a mix, I guess. So there are some clusters
of properties that are in clumps of areas that were
really adversely affected during those twenty twenty three storms. And
then then there's areas spread across the region where either
landslipe or flooding are queued.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Where does the money come from, because it's quite a chunk.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
That is a chunk, and just to for those twelve
hundred properties, it's over one point two billion dollars between
the Crown and the council funding. So it's a significant
investments in future resilience for Auckland and ensuring people are
removed from that intolerable risk to life that was so
critical during that time. So the money comes from the

(01:10):
Crown and ratepayers, so it's fifty to fifty funding split.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
The thirty percent I've seen that you estimate thirty percent
of the land could actually be developed, so you could
end up with housing on some of this land.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
That's correct, I mean, this really matters, So it will
take time, but our current current modeling shows that with
some further investment in flood resilience for example, So this
is the making space for water program and a different
development form than the homes that were there in a
brown field sense. You know, we think there is around

(01:47):
thirty percent that could be redeveloped for safe residential use.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
What happens to the rest of it? Does it just
sit there and you know as a flood zone of options?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
So yes, some of it will be used for the
Blue Green network and making space for water, so it
will be actually daylighting streams to make more space to
water and that that those areas will be amenity for
use by people when when it's not flooding. So think

(02:21):
about long linear parks down stream sides where there's walking
paths and the like but when it floods, that space
is there and people will be will be safe, and
other other locations, it's possible in those sporadic locations to
potentially neighbors to buy that land for a non residential use,

(02:45):
increase the size of their garden that time back.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Appreciate that. Thanks for your time this morning, mas Ward
from All Than Council's Recovery office. For more Familily edition
with Ryan Bridge, listen live to Newstalks it Be from
five EM weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio