Phil TWYFORD

Housing Spokesperson

1 October 2013       MEDIA STATEMENT

Housing announcement a desperate distraction

National is selling off one hundred dilapidated state houses a year in places like Otorohanga and Invercargill where there is no housing crisis, Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says.

“What the country needs is 10,000 new affordable homes built every year in areas where there is a housing crisis.

“If ever there was an example of how this Government’s housing policy is completely falling apart, this is it.

“They just don’t get it.

“Announcing this policy today is a desperate attempt by Housing Minister Nick Smith to distract attention from the controversy raging over thousands of Kiwi first home buyers locked out of the market by mortgage lending limits.

“Today’s introduction of loan-to-value ratio rules by the Reserve Bank is a direct result of National’s mishandling of the housing crisis.

“A Labour government would curb skyrocketing house prices by clamping down on speculators through a capital gains tax and building 100,000 affordable first homes through KiwiBuild,” Phil Twyford says.

ENDS

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