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Bennett’s policy on-the-hoof helps just 12 families

Andrew Little

Leader of the Opposition

MEDIA STATEMENT

28 July 2016

Bennett’s policy on-the-hoof helps just 12 families

Paula Bennett’s on-the-hoof policy to pay people to leave their Auckland state houses has been an utter failure after just a dozen families took up the offer, Leader of the Opposition Andrew Little says.

“The Social Housing Minister made this policy up and it shows. It was clearly a last minute panicked idea to make it look like the increasingly out of touch Government had a solution to the growing number of families being forced to live in cars and garages.

“Paula Bennett didn’t gauge the level of interest in this and failed to recognise how hard it is for a family to leave a city where their relatives, friends, jobs, schools and communities are. No wonder she didn’t want to tell the Finance Minister about her desperate plan.

“This is another of National’s half-baked, half measures to solve the housing crisis. Added to a litany of failed policies, including building homes on cemeteries and power stations, the state housing sell-off and non-existent flying squads, it’s no surprise the housing crisis is getting worse.

“The Minister must reveal how much this policy cost the Government to set up. Would it have been cheaper just to subsidise the rent of these families so they could relocate to a private rental in Auckland and retain their support communities?

“The Government is in disarray over housing. Only Labour has a comprehensive plan to address the crisis. We will look after families in desperate need by stopping the sell-off of state houses and building more. The homeless will be helped into temporary accommodation through extra funding to emergency housing providers.

“Labour will also embark on a Government-backed affordable house building programme and crack down on foreign speculators pushing up house prices and locking families out of the Kiwi dream of homeownership,” Andrew Little says.

ends

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