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29 July 2021: A Building Better research team has recently looked at the social impacts of irrigation developments in the Waitaki Valley (North Otago) and Amuri (North Canterbury) as part of evaluating the success of regional regeneration initiatives, along with developing methods and capability in assessing social impacts. The work is important to see how the actual impacts line up with the predicted Social Impact Assessment of such work: What worked well, and for whom? What patterns of change were not anticipated and how were these addressed? What can be learnt from these experiences?

The team have been conducting after-the-fact analyses of a number of initiatives for regional social and economic regeneration in Aotearoa New Zealand’s South Island. The research confirms that regeneration typically is a complex, incremental process involving multiple stakeholders over a lengthy period. Part of Building Better’s “Thriving Regions” work stream, the first tranche of research examined the social impacts of tourism infrastructure developments, including the Alps to Ocean (A2O) National Cycle Trail in the Waitaki Valley. The second tranche is looking at strategies for primary production, especially irrigation, and housing for a changing workforce and population.

Irrigation in the Lower Waitaki and Amuri brought changes in land ownership, land uses, farming systems, and farm size. Photo: Dr Mike Mackay.

28 July 2021: A team of Building Better researchers studying town-centre regeneration in the South Island say a lot more could be done by local and central government to assist and work with benevolent property entrepreneurs who want their development projects to be both profitable and enhance the social, economic, and aesthetic elements of their home communities.

Regional settlement regeneration in New Zealand is usually undertaken by locally-based people with very limited external resourcing. Since 1984, New Zealand’s central government, consistent with a neo-liberal market-centred policy stance, has pursued only limited regional development objectives. The net results are uneven impacts on regions, their economies, settlements, and people.

The rise of e-retailing and changes in transport and vehicle parking preferences, and opportunities in edge- and out-of-centre sites, has meant that regional town-centres must innovate to attract investment. Timaru's Stafford Street.

27 July 2021: A Building Better research team has developed a user-centred methodology for collecting, categorising, visualising, and interpreting data on urban cycling infrastructure and related cycling events using smart phones to measure accelerometer, gyroscope, speed, and global positioning (GPS), and 360-degree cameras to record audio and visual data.

The team has collected data on eight recently built major cycle routes in Christchurch, and they are now using the data from one of the routes to examine future research opportunities and potential applications of the methodology to support efforts to advance the planning, design, and implementation of urban cycleways around New Zealand.

Lead researcher Dr Andreas Wesener, a senior lecturer in Urban Design at the School of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University, says the promotion of active transport, including cycling, is an important aspect of sustainable urban design.

Smartphone with attached Giroptic iO 360-degree camera. Photo: Dr Andreas Wesener.

17 July 2021
What: Stuff Life and Style article on housing affordablity by reporter Geraden Cann

Reporter Geraden Cann discusses a recent BBHTC Research Bulletin and interviews BBHTC's co-leader for Affordable Housing for Generations, Dr Kay Saville-Smith.

The number of properties in the hands of investors increased about 191 per cent between 1986 and 2018, research has found. In real terms, that constituted 288,714 more properties entering the hands of investors, resulting in the group owning over a quarter of the occupied housing stock, or 440,025 properties.

In the same period, the number of properties owned by occupiers grew more modestly, around 36 per cent, and houses held by the likes of state housing and council housing fell by 10,755.

The figures, from Building Better Homes Towns and Cities National Science Challenge (BBHTC), reveal how investors have grown into a driving force behind New Zealand’s housing crisis.

Dr Kay Saville-Smith. Photo: Louise Thomas.

2 July 2021
What: The Spinoff article and podcast by Bernard Hickey

Reporter Bernard Hickey was shocked at how shocked readers were at his loss of hope for the housing futures of young renters. Challenged to come up with new ideas unconstrained by political and financial limits, he went in search of hope elsewhere and dreamed up a big new idea of his own.

Bernard spoke to BBHTC's co-leader for Affordable Housing for Generations, Dr Kay Saville-Smith, in a podcast. Kay said she was more hopeful than she’d been in decades of housing research and policy advice. She said policy makers, politicians and many in the sector had finally realised the scale of the issues and the need to change many things, through regulation, investment and policy changes. She was positive about the role of community housing providers and Kāinga Ora in building new homes, and also pointed to the potential for councils to use special rates to capture value uplift on land values when councils rezone areas and/or make the land more valuable by investing in infrastructure in and around it.

Photo: Louise Thomas.

21 June 2021: European regional policy promotes “smart specialisation” by encouraging regions to expand into activities that build on local strengths. The idea is that bringing together people with complementary skills helps them generate new ideas that boost innovation and growth. But does this actually work in a New Zealand context?

Research, recently published in the international journal Regional Studies, by Building Better researchers Benjamin Davies and Dr David Maré, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, examines the potential for this way of generating ideas to promote urban employment growth in New Zealand. They find that, in New Zealand, the presence of related industries in an area is not a strong predictor of local employment growth. But why is that?

Local job networks may promote growth in big cities, but not in small ones. Wellington docks: Photo by James Coleman.

18 June 2021
What: Stuff article by Chloe Ranford Local Democracy Reporter

In this Stuff article, Building Better Researchers Dr Bev James and Dr Kay Saville-Smith argue that rents in the Marlborough Council's senior units were too high for many seniors. The council is looking to adjust their rental prices upward.

Bev said figures from the Ministry of Social Development showed almost half of the pensioners renting a house in the region, including many in council housing, were on the Accommodation Supplement – a benefit paid to those who could not afford their own housing costs.

“This, by definition, means their current rent is unaffordable.”

Housing researcher Dr Bev James says senior rents should be capped at 25 per cent of income. Photo: Chloe Ranford/LDR/Stuff.

27 May 2021
What: Scoop article

A Scoop article which interviews Building Better Researcher Dr Bev James on the Budget 2021 announcements in relation to housing.

“Research shows that new builds need to be targeted to affordable rental and purchase opportunities for low and modest income households. Therefore, price points of new builds need to be affordable to families and whānau.

“A large body of research shows that there is significant exposure to poorly performing housing, and links poor housing to negative impacts on health and wellbeing.

“The acceleration of new builds is clearly important. Our research shows that housing stress affects not just low-income households, but also modest income households, including in some regions, households with incomes above the regional household income median," says Bev.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson announcing Budget 2021 highlights to media. Photo: Scoop.

18 May 2021: Aotearoa New Zealand is a massive food producer. We are in the enviable position of being one of the few countries that can be self-sufficient as well as contribute to global food needs. With 45% of New Zealand’s arable land dedicated to food production, as well as supplying the domestic market, food producers annually export enough food to feed 20 million people.

Despite this abundance of nutrition, food security is not guaranteed in our country. The food price index has steadily risen, with fresh fruit and vegetables in particular becoming increasingly expensive. New Zealand has increasing issues of socio-economic inequalities which sees some people having insufficient resources to purchase or access food. Currently, almost one in five children (19.0%) live in severe to moderately food insecure households, while food surplus is dumped in skips.

Recent research led by Building Better Researchers Dr Kelly Dombroski and Gradon Diprose (University of Canterbury and Manaaki Whenua), shows that the COVID-19 global pandemic poses significant challenges to food security, particularly with regards to food access, availability, and stability.

Photo: Mark Stebnicki, Pexels.

11 April 2021
What: Stuff article, part of a series called Off the Ladder on housing affordablity, by reporter Geraden Cann

A 2019 report by Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities researchers Matthew Rout, John Reid, Di Menzies and Angus MacFarlane titled Homeless and landless in two generations – Averting the Māori housing disaster found in 1936, 71 per cent of Māori lived in dwellings owned by their whānau.

By 1991, the ownership rate had fallen to 56 per cent, by 2013 it was at 43 per cent, and by May 2019 it was likely below 40 per cent.

This article about Julia Frelan, who lost her family home in 2009 after a family illness resulted in some financial problems, discusses the housing crisis for Māori using research by Building Better researchers.

A Ngāpuhi woman, Julia Frelan, who has been priced out of ever owning another home says she feels the housing crisis has resulted in the loss of her identity as a New Zealander. Photo: Chris McKeen/Stuff.

16 April 2021: Issue 19 of the Building Better newsletter is out now, packed full of research news and views from Building Better researchers.

Articles include:

• Life when renting for older Māori;

• Quality of life ultimate goal for ‘smart’ communities;

• Building the foundations of collaboration: From housing development to community renewal;

• Supporting geospatial decisions;

• Financialisation of NZ’s housing market driving house price increases; and

• 2020: A Year without Public Space.

"2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic" is a webinar series which includes presentations and moderation by BBHTC Urban Wellbeing researcher Manfredo Manfredini, Associate Professor in Achitecture and Planning at the University of Auckland. Read all about it in the latest Building Better eNewsletter. Photo: Edwin Hooper, Unsplash.

31 March 2021: Collaborative governance and planning are usually seen as an improvement on technocratic “top-down” approaches, but they can be criticized for exacerbating power imbalances, failing to be inclusive and/or impartial, and for ignoring historical conflict. A team of Building Better Researchers Drs Zohreh Karaminejad, Suzanne Vallance, and Roy Montgomery from Lincoln University investigated how strong foundations for collaborative housing-renewal may be built to address these concerns and facilitate broader community-renewal ambitions.

State houses in Aranui, such as this multi-unit building, were designed without consultation and with reduced cost in mind. The dwellings caused widespread dissatisfaction because of the lack of privacy and limited private outdoor spaces. They were monotonous and the proximity of several multi-unit buildings promoted territorial gang wars and created safety issues for other residents. Some have been replaced, some still remain, and they remain unpopular. Photo: Zohreh Karaminejad, Lincoln University.

30 March 2021: The proportion of Māori aged over 55 years living in rental accommodation is likely to rise as home ownership becomes less attainable. To examine what the future of rental accommodation may hold for older Māori, Building Better Researchers Dr Fiona Cram and Morehu Munro interviewed 42 older Māori renters in the Hawke’s Bay region of Aotearoa New Zealand about their experiences.

Participants had moved to their current home to be closer to whānau or out of necessity, and their whānau had often helped them make the decision to move. While some found paying their rent manageable, they often struggled with other living costs. Some struggled with the cost of rent.

“Until the mid-1970s, the proportion of Māori households whose members owned their own home exceeded those who lived in rented accommodation, but this has now been reversed,” says Fiona.

Between 1986 and 2013, the proportion of Māori living in rental accommodation increased from 41% to 77% of Māori.

17 March 2021: The knowledge of what is going on with infrastructure in a city helps city managers to anticipate and plan for changes needed to investment and operations. For this, good geospatially-referenced data is crucial to making good decisions. City managers also need the capacity to analyse, diagnose, and communicate in order to improve quality of life for citizens – the ultimate goal of being ‘smarter’.

The management of public assets faces a similar challenge of ensuring that the goal of managing assets is to improve quality of life for the communities they serve.

A Building Better project by WSP’s Vivienne Ivory, Kai O’Donnell, and Phil McFarlane investigated how smaller local authorities can harness the power of smart data to analyse and diagnose infrastructure performance and allow communities to participate in decisions over the whole life of assets.

3 March 2021: In Aotearoa New Zealand, our housing stock is now seen as a commodity and this financialisation of the housing market is driving exponential increases in house prices. At the same time, home ownership is a dominant aspiration for New Zealanders.

Evidence from Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge shows that it is not land costs that determine whether houses are built or not, it’s what people can sell those houses for on the open market, and a profit margin that is attractive to banks and equity lenders.

The reality of undersupply: This infographic shows that in the 1960s over 35% of new builds in Aotearoa New Zealand were in the lowest quartile of value. By 2003, only eight percent of new builds were in the lowest quartile of value.

1 March 2021
What: Stuff article, part of a series called Off the Ladder on housing affordablity, by reporter Geraden Cann

In March 2018, home-ownership was at its lowest in almost 70 years. Since then the median price has almost doubled and rent is up by a quarter. Stuff’s Off the Ladder series talks to those priced out of the market.

This article about legally blind student Roamen Humphris's struggles to find a flat mentions work undertaken by the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities Affordable Housing For Generations (AHFG) programme, led by researcher Kay Saville-Smith, which also found older people in rentals were much more likely to be disabled than those in their own homes.

Roamen Humphris is now on a waitlist for social housing and hopes to have a place of his own in time for university in 2022. Photo: Monique Ford/Stuff.

24 February 2021: Urban planning is complex. How do you address population growth in cities without degrading the local environment, while promoting social and environmental sustainability, liveability, health, and wellbeing? Decisions should be informed from the current evidence for better social, environmental, and economic outcomes at the city and neighbourhood scales.

However, planners face the challenge of having to comply with planning processes and regulations which don’t necessarily have an integrated approach to environmental, social, and economic assessment of planning and regeneration scenarios. There are also significant pressures to urban transformation, with the rise of national and transnational standards and neoliberalism which can see business interests directly influence local development decisions at the expense of other considerations.

5 February 2021: Gradon Diprose has a curious mind, he has always questioned the world around him. Now he is a geographer working as a social science researcher at Manaaki Whenua—Landcare Research. He is a key researcher in Building Better's Huritanga research team and was a key researcher on the Delivering Urban Wellbeing project. He is passionate about communicating solutions to social and environmental issues in an accessible way.

BBHTC early career researcher: Gradon Diprose. Photo: Royal Society Te Apārangi.

1 February 2021: 2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic is a webinar series which includes presentations and moderation by BBHTC Urban Wellbeing researcher Manfredo Manfredini, Associate Professor in Achitecture and Planning at the University of Auckland.

The videos are now available on the BBHTC website.

The World is temporarily closed. Photo: Edwin Hooper, Unsplash.