John Tamihere. concerned about housing in Auckland, doesn't rule out running for mayor

John Tamihere is contemplating a return to the political arena by taking on Phil Goff for the Auckland mayoralty.

Mr Tamihere, the Waipareira Trust chief executive, says he wants to change the culture of leadership from a "dictatorship" and fix Auckland's housing crisis.

When asked by 1 NEWS about running for mayor he said, "Ultimately I don’t know the answer to that question ... I will cross that bridge when I get to it."

Mr Tamihere says if he stood for mayor, he wouldn’t be coming in with no experience.

"We're building 120 units in Waterview and that’s great because that brings a lot of poor people's kids into Mount Albert Grammer zone and Auckland Girls Grammar zone and so on.

"It’s a great development and it’s 100% social housing."

Mr Tamihere, a former Labour Party MP, says he'd get a lot of support if he ran for mayor.

Housing in Auckland is a key concern of Mr Tamihere. He says there is no guarantee that people will live in harmony when put into social housing.

"We can hold hands and smoke a bong or something, I hope that happens, but I don’t see it happening."

He says wrap around services are important to ensure good behaviour and the community has to police those, not the police.

The catalyst for Mr Tamihere's frustration was a disagreement over the level of social housing in developments planned by Waipareira Trust on land sold by council agency Panuku Development Auckland.

Mr Tamihere claims Panuku is restricting social housing levels and this will drive up property prices and rental costs.