Episode 173 of the podcast is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms.
This is the fourth of a series of episodes being led by the oldest friend of the podcast, Paul Smith. Paul, regular listeners will know, is the Managing Director at the Strategic Land Group and a Housing Today columnist.
Paul put it to me a little while ago that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely on the planning system in England. We very seldom look to other countries for inspiration and ideas.
Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he is chatting with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what can we learn.
In this episode Paul explores the planning system in New Zealand with Stuart Donovan. Stuart is an economist and Senior Fellow with Motu Research, an independent Wellington-based economics and public policy institute.
In a conversation recorded online back in January of this year Paul and Stewart talk about why Auckland became one of the least affordable housing markets in the world and how the opportunities for upzoning presented by an earthquake in Christchurch and local government reorganisation in Auckland became so successful that they were ultimately replicated nationally.
Paul and I do not, at present, have any other All Around the World recordings lined up so if you know any planning professionals or academics in other countries, or indeed if you are a planning professional or academic in another country, do please get in touch with me via samstafford@hotmail.com.

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