Last year Housing Minister Mark Gosche dumped National's Home Buy scheme disappointing 700 families in the process, now he is flying a kite about a new 'state-assisted mortgage' scheme, National's Housing spokesperson David Carter said.

"National's Home Buy scheme was designed to allow low-income New Zealanders to buy their own home. Mr Gosche couldn't dump it quickly enough just because it wasn't his policy. He used the excuse that he was stopping state house sales but failed to point out that only houses in areas of low-demand were sold.

"Now he's making noises about bringing in a scheme that sounds like it's going to be reminiscent of the old 'Home Start' scheme of the 1980s.

"The secret to home ownership is the affordability of interest rates. Is Mr Gosche hinting that Mr Anderton's brainchild, the Peoples' Bank, is going to target low-income families by providing lower interest rate mortgages than the rest of the sector?

"Mr Gosche should concentrate any taxpayer funds on applying the exclusive income-related rents policy to all low-income New Zealanders, not just the few who live in a state house. If he won't do this then he should focus on building more state houses so the already burgeoning waiting lists can start to reduce," Mr Carter said.

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