Will anyone want to live in Wellington City?

Reporter Community News

Young people will not want to live in Wellington if the city’s housing crisis is not fixed, a frustrated councillor has told colleagues.

As Wellington City Council's six-month Housing Action Plan report came to the table at its strategy and policy committee meeting on Wednesday, the draft spatial plan, social housing and affordability became hot topics.

Councillor Tamatha Paul warned her colleagues that a change in attitude was needed if the city is to prosper.

"If we want to keep [Wellington] grey and dull and boring, and if we want to keep going the way we're going with the debate we’re having then it’s quickly going to be the city no one wants to live in, especially not young people.

We don't fix housing affordability by having no supply – that doesn’t make any sense to me and to me, it's making the problem of social housing worse because we’re pricing people out."