The Mayors of some of the country's largest cities have been caught off guard by the Government's housing density announcement.
National and the government have teamed-up to slash red tape by August next year with the aim of making it easier to build more apartments and townhouses.
But councils were kept in the dark until the day of the announcement.
Many of them have already started work on their District Plans to comply with a Government directive last year to increase housing density.
This puts further pressure on councils, as political reporter Charlie Dreaver explains.
