Officer is part of new system under government’s Planning Bill
Housing and Resource Management Act (RMA) Reform Minister Chris Bishop and RMA Reform Undersecretary Simon Court have announced the government’s plan to establish an independent urban land market officer, pursuant to an amendment paper to the new Planning Bill.
“They will provide independent assurance to government that planning decisions made locally support competitive urban land markets – getting these critical decisions out of the hands of central government politicians and into the hands of experts,” Bishop said.
“The Urban Land Market Officer is another lever for driving culture shift, with a clear focus on whether councils are actually enabling enough land for growth,” Court added in the government’s news release.
The government explained that the urban land market officer will:
If the officer decides that a local authority’s actions under the Planning Act have contributed to a non-competitive urban land market, the local authority should take steps to remedy this, including through plan changes for more housing capacity.
In the news release, Bishop said the new planning system will aim to:
“For too long councils have been able to weaponise an ever-growing list of ‘effects’, or game theoretical capacity targets, while constraining real development and driving land and house prices to eye-watering levels,” Court said.
According to Bishop, under the new planning system, councils have a statutory obligation to ensure competitive urban land markets, specifically by seeing to it that:
“If a council is choking off land supply, there will now be an independent umpire to call it out and require action — without putting those decisions back into politicians’ laps,” Court said.
In the government’s news release, Bishop explained that government policies – developed via the new planning system’s national policy direction and national standards – will seek to help cities expand through:
Here are some other recent news stories involving announcements from the government.
On 6 August 2026, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced the passage in Parliament of the final reading of the Crimes Act Amendment Bill, which aims to add citizen arrest powers and otherwise overhaul the Crimes Act.
On 22 July 2026, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced the government’s adoption of additional amendments to the Arms Bill, as recommended by the Justice Select Committee, with even more changes proposed through an amendment paper.
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