May 9 2002
Budget 2002

Nearly $72 million more is to be spent on extra state houses over the next four years, Housing Ministers Mark Gosche and Tariana Turia announced today.

“This is expected to fund about 360 extra houses in areas of greatest need, mainly Auckland.”

Mr Gosche said that with this new funding the government would spend $353.8 million providing extra state houses over the next four years.

“We had already planned to add an extra 2169 state houses in this period, so this increase means we are aiming for a total increase of 2529 houses in the next four years.”

“More state housing for low income families is urgently needed. Too many people with desperate housing needs are still having to wait much longer than we would like for a house, because of the huge number of state houses sold under the previous government.

“Under National, the number of state houses was reduced by about 11,500 nation-wide, and they had plans to sell off another 10,000. This government has reversed this trend. We are replenishing the stock and by the end of this calendar year we expect to have acquired about 1600 homes since we became government.

“The housing stock was run down for nearly a decade. We cannot reverse all that damage overnight, but this latest funding increase is another major step forward in our efforts to ensure that low income families have decent, affordable housing.”

The $71.99 million consists of $70.5 million capital funding and $1.49 million operating funding.

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