Hon Phil Twyford

Minister for Housing and Urban Development

MEDIA STATEMENT

16 November 2017

Previous Government told house building would fall; KiwiBuild will increase total building

The previous Government was told by officials that the number of houses built would peak and start to fall well short of the number needed to meet demand. Official advice shows KiwiBuild will prevent this decline in house building and drive further increases, says Minister of Housing and Urban Development Phil Twyford.

“The National Construction Pipeline Report 2017 to the previous National Government showed new house construction peaking at 34,500 in 2019. This would have been well below previous records and short of what is needed to meet population growth.

“National’s policies would have led to continued growth in the nationwide shortage of 71,000 built up over the past nine years. It is incredible that National Ministers had this advice and did nothing.

“Advice from the Ministry for Business, Innovation, and Employment is that KiwiBuild will increase construction of new homes, not replace home building that would have happened anyway. Under the MBIE modelling, the number of houses will continue to rise with the Labour-led Government, rather than fall as they would have under the previous government.

“KiwiBuild will not only get more Kiwi families into affordable homes of their own, it will help prevent a decline in output from the building sector. That will mean more jobs and will help strengthen the economy.

“To lift home building to the record levels last seen under Labour in the 1970s, the Government will work alongside the industry to boost capacity. We’ll support training more workers, make it easier to bring in skilled tradespeople from overseas, and back factory building to boost productivity and improve quality.

“Fixing the housing crisis will require government, the building industry, councils, iwi, and community groups all working towards the same goal. We need more homes for our people and, together, we will build them,” says Phil Twyford.

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