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Nikki's News: August 2015

Nikki's News: August 2015

Improving housing affordability and home ownership is one of the most important issues for Aucklanders now and for the foreseeable future.

As an Auckland MP I support the view that the reason successive central and local governments over decades have witnessed significant increases in house prices, and reductions in home ownership, is because there isn’t a silver bullet.

We will only see progress through a dedicated plan to tackle the underlying factors that are driving up house prices and reducing home ownership. Some of the factors that influence housing issues are global as they are tied up with population, and immigration towards cities and urban areas and the need to have intensification and rules that support this. Cities like Sydney and Melbourne demonstrate this trend.

As a Government we have undertaken, and are progressing in, a range of initiatives focused on improving housing affordability through reducing costs, speeding up consents and land availability, and taxing people properly who are buying and selling houses to make a profit. We’re undertaking RMA reform to reduce cost and times to build houses, increasing subsidies for first home buyers to ensure more people can raise deposits, reforming and reducing building costs through changes to the construction sector and the pricing of building materials.

The housing issue is about supply, and that is why the Government is focused on getting more houses built. We're freeing up more land for residential development through Special Housing Areas. We now have in place 118 Special Housing Areas through Housing Accords agreed with eight local councils across the country. Altogether, they will deliver more than 49,000 new homes across New Zealand that will make a real difference to addressing the country's housing supply and affordability challenges.

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The Government has a wider programme of work underway which includes initiatives to constrain building material costs, rein in development contributions, cut compliance costs and invest in improved sector productivity. Our new $435 million HomeStart support package, which came into effect 1 April, will provide grants of up to $20,000 for 90,000 first home buyers.

I was really saddened by the Labour Party’s release of poorly-analysed, cherry-picked housing data from one Auckland real estate agent. Their analysis lumped a whole lot of Kiwis in with some potential overseas buyers. The overwhelming feedback I have had is that it was insensitive and a wee bit reckless.

However, we do believe we need to have better data to assess whether further changes need to be made in this area. With good data we will be able to have a much more informed and considered debate about future policy. The Government currently has a Bill before Parliament on overseas buyers registering with IRD which will provide much more accurate information. All non-residents and New Zealanders buying and selling property other than their main home will have to provide a New Zealand IRD number. Non-resident buyers and sellers must also provide their tax identification number from their home country, along with current identification requirements such as a passport.

Under existing rules, anyone buying property with the intention of selling for a gain is already liable for tax on that gain. We're making sure the existing law is enforced, including for overseas buyers and speculators. Gains from residential property sold within two years of purchase will be taxed at the investors' top marginal tax rate, unless the property is the seller's main home, inherited from a deceased estate or part of a relationship settlement.

We are playing catch up in Auckland because of years of not building enough houses. The Government has a comprehensive plan focusing ensuring land availability, reducing costs and improving the supply of houses. We will do more in a considered way in other areas if we required.

Bayfield Opening

I was delighted to recently open Bayfield School’s new teaching and administration block.

These are exciting times for the school as we look to the future and provide spaces that will foster and enhance collaborative teaching and learning. Bayfield School, with a roll of 384, will benefit from a $12 million redevelopment that includes 12 new teaching spaces, as well as a new library, staff facilities, administration area and music suite. Work is still underway on the school’s new hall, which is due to be completed next month. Landscaping will also be carried out to create new links between redeveloped and existing areas.

Bayfield School and its community have had a tough time recently with asbestos issues. I want to acknowledge the leadership of the board, principal and school through this period. It was a special day for the school community to have these buildings now open.

Freemans Bay Primary Visit

I recently visited Freemans Bay Primary School and met up with the talented and hard- working principal Sandra Jenkins.

We discussed the importance of ensuring school property design is fully integrated into learning and teaching. It was great to visit several classrooms and meet teachers and students doing some cutting-edge work in modern learning environments.

$100m-plus transportable classroom deal signed

A contract has been signed with the consortium Interlink which will provide over $100 million worth of modern, multi-purpose, transportable classrooms over ten years. This contract will deliver at least 50 transportable classrooms each year to schools around New Zealand, but is designed to deliver more if required. The classrooms will be invaluable in situations where a permanent building is temporarily out of action, or we need to meet rapid roll growth in a particular location.

These are high-quality buildings that will support innovative teaching and learning methods. They meet the same standards as modern, permanent structures for earthquake resilience, weather-tightness and environmental sustainability. But they have the added advantages of being more adaptable and faster to deliver. The new transportables are modular, which means they can be put together in a number of wats to create whatever learning space is needed – everything from a single or double storey classroom to dance and drama studio, science laboratory, library or administration and reception area. The Ministry of Education will be able to relocate these buildings as schools’ needs change.

This is a cost-effective approach that allows for a building to be transferred many times between schools, rather than creating fixed permanent structures at individual schools that may not need them in future.

Point Chevalier Kindergarten Announcement

Last week I was pleased to announce the Government is investing several million dollars in Point Chevalier to ensure a new community Education Hub which will incorporate the relocated Pt Chevalier Kindergarten. Fellow MPs Melissa Lee and David Shearer also attended the announcement.

The Ministry of Education has purchased land for $2.8 million at 90-94 Walmer Road in Pt Chevalier to house a new hub. This is an innovative solution that will free up land at Pt Chevalier School, where the kindergarten is currently located, and provide much needed outdoor space for the school’s growing roll.

At the same time, it ensures the relocated kindergarten is less than one kilometre from the existing site, and will also enable a range of complementary community services to be offered to local families from a single, convenient location.

The Auckland Kindergarten Association, which runs Pt Chevalier Kindergarten, will survey local residents to find out what services they would like the new hub to offer. I applaud the Ministry of Education and others involved in this project for thinking outside the square. Construction is scheduled to begin before the end of the year and be completed by late 2016.

New classrooms confirmed to meet Auckland growth

Education Minister Hekia Parata and I recently confirmed more than 230 new classrooms are on-track to be delivered over the next 18 months to help meet increasing rolls in Auckland. Last August, the Government announced that it would invest $350 million over four years to get ahead of demand in our biggest city. This investment is now bearing fruit, with the new classrooms confirmed today resulting from roll growth funding in Budget 2015 and previous Budgets. Every year we’ve been in Government, we have increased the education budget.

As well as new classrooms, the $350 million accelerated growth funding provides for nine new Auckland schools by 2018. Two of these have already been confirmed, in Kumeu and Scott Point. Other parts of New Zealand are experiencing roll growth and we’re committed to dealing with that too, but as our largest city with a growing population, it’s important we move to meet the demand in Auckland. Projections indicate there will be an extra 107,000 school students in Auckland over the next 30 years.

For some schools, accommodating roll growth will require building higher than one storey. Schools understandably want to preserve open spaces such as fields, so it makes sense to build upwards. All of the new classrooms will meet the Ministry of Education’s ‘innovative learning environment’ criteria. This means they will have appropriate heating, lighting, ventilation and acoustics, and can support a range of teaching and learning approaches.

The aim is to create modern, comfortable and innovative environments that inspire children to succeed.


ENDS

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