Labour threatens land confiscation

Newshub reported:

On Monday Mr Twyford, the new Housing Minister, warned if “land bankers holding out a massive new development that’s going to deliver thousands of new homes” won’t hand land over, the Government could seize it.

He says the law does not need to be changed to allow the agency to have that power – it already exists under the Public Works Act.

They can try, but if Labour wants to start seizing land off its owners they’re going to have a rough time.

The Public Works Act is generally used for major projects such as a road (or dam). You can’t have a partial road or dam, so you need a mechanism for getting a contiguous area of land for it. That is the Public Works Act.

Now merely wanting to build some houses in a particular area would be hard to justify under the Public Works Act. You’d have to make a strong case that a particular piece of land is essential.

The Environment Court can over-ride the Minister with disputed land under the Public Works Act. They have to be convinced that the objectives of the Minister can’t be met some other way.

So I doubt Labour will get far trying to confiscate land for housing.