Invest in homes not landlord subsidies

The Government needs to invest in building new houses to address the current shortage of 70,000 homes, otherwise there will be a massive blowout in housing subsidies to landlords. 

“We urgently need more houses in New Zealand to ensure that everyone has somewhere decent to sleep. The Government housing programmes are doing nothing to address this fundamental problem,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei. 

In Parliament today, Mrs Turei questioned Minister of Finance Bill English on the lack of a plan to address the projected rise in Government housing subsidies to $3 billion by 2016 and the current shortfall of 70,000 homes in New Zealand’s housing stock.

“If we don’t invest in housing now we will end up paying more in housing subsidies to private landlords - many of whom pay little or no tax on earnings from their housing portfolio.”

The recent Government taskforce Home and Housed report found that there is a shortage of 70,000 houses in New Zealand, and that 8,500- to 20,000 New Zealand households have extreme housing issues.

The Green Party’s Mind the Gap package recommends a comprehensive state house building program to increase the stock by 6000 homes over 3-5 years, creating 28,000 jobs in the process. It also proposes investment of $200 million in community housing to build 500 homes and create around 3,500 jobs.

John Key's Government has cut money for upgrading and acquiring state houses from $120 million dollars to $18 million dollars in this year's Budget.

“Housing deprivation drives inequality and the evidence shows that inequality is bad for everyone. It is only fair that all New Zealanders have access to affordable housing,” said Mrs Turei.