Judith Collins - Housing and Urban Development

21 May 2018

Labour’s admission there will be no income limits for people who want to buy KiwiBuild houses will mean low income New Zealanders will help subsidise homes for the wealthy, National’s Housing and Urban Development spokesperson Judith Collins says.

“Labour has its priorities badly wrong. It is heaping more and more taxes on New Zealanders just to pour more money into bad spending ideas like $1 billion for diplomats to keep Winston Peters happy.

“In the case of KiwiBuild the Government is subsidising the building of houses, though admittedly only a handful so far, and it is subsidising the sale.

“Those houses are then going to be sold via a ballot, with the only criteria being the ballot winner must be purchasing their first home. That’s it. That means there’s potentially hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars going into each house and straight into the pockets of whoever is lucky enough to win the ballot.

“That means someone could be earning twice the average wage and still get a taxpayer subsidised house. How is that fair and how is that a good use of taxpayers’ money?

“It’s not. It’s taking money off everyone, some of whom need it to make ends meet, to help a few people get ahead.

“National’s targeted first home buyers package helped 31,000 New Zealanders into their first home through first home buyers grants and welcome home loans. That support went to those who needed it and would have helped another 81,000 people over the next four years.

“That was fair and targeted. Labour’s approach is a free for all which will help only those whose names are drawn from a hat. It’s a bad idea and they need to urgently rethink it, along with the rest of the policy.”

ends

© Scoop Media