Emergency housing bill blamed on red tape

The reason for spiking emergency housing costs can be found in a report released just yesterday, says ACT Deputy Leader Beth Houlbrooke.

“Two pieces of news this week are directly linked,” says Ms. Houlbrooke.

“First, the Government quietly released a report it commissioned on land use rules. It found that red tape caused 56% of housing costs in Auckland, confirming what ACT has always said about the effects of bad regulation on house prices.

“Second, it’s confirmed that the Government is spending $140,000 a day on putting people up in motels and other emergency accommodation, a cost likely to total $50 million this year alone.

“In other words, red tape is driving up housing costs not just for renters and buyers, but for the general taxpayer too.

“ACT says it’s madness to ban people from building homes when we’ve got a chronic housing shortage.

“For years we’ve said we need to replace the Resource Management Act with a law that allows developers to build the houses New Zealanders desperately need. We need to scrap rural-urban boundaries that ban people from building past a certain line. And councils need incentives to approve development, instead of making it too hard."

ENDS

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