The fine print of Labour’s Bill to restore income related rents will come as a shock to State Housing tenants who all expected to be paying no more than 25% of their income in rent.

ACT Housing Spokesman Muriel Newman said Labour had made a promise that no state house tenants would pay more than 25 percent of their income in rent but, the Bill’s fine print reveals strict criteria for qualifying for the full subsidy leaving around 19,000 state tenants out in the cold.

“Labour knew its policy was unfair and unsustainable from the start and yet it has led State Housing tenants to believe that none of them would pay more than 25 % when, in fact, that is not the case,” she said.

“The rest of Housing New Zealand’s tenants will rightly be asking why Labour isn’t honouring its promise to them,” she said.

Muriel Newman said Labour’s Bill will also create a massive gap between those low income families lucky enough to get a state house and rent subsidy and those 260,000 low income families renting private homes who will be unfairly discriminated against by the Government.

“The Minister of Housing has already admitted that Labour’s policy will see a return to the days of massive waiting lists for State Houses where families were forced into appalling temporary accommodation while they waited for their number to come up,” she said.

“It is totally unfair for a Government to penalise low income families because they aren’t living in a State House. Families struggling on low incomes should not be discriminated against because they can’t get into a state house. They deserve a fair housing policy that treats everyone equally regardless of whether they live in private or public housing,” said Muriel Newman.

ENDS

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