Another week, another broken KiwiBuild promise

KiwiBuild continues to offer nothing but failure, with the Government effectively confirming it won’t meet its watered-down expectation of 300 houses built in the project’s first year, National’s Housing spokesperson Judith Collins says.

When asked by media on Monday whether KiwiBuild would live up to Phil Twyford’s reduced expectation of 300 houses completed by June 30, the Prime Minister would not commit to that number.

“It’s yet another broken promise from the Government,” Ms Collins says.

“This shouldn’t surprise anyone after both the Prime Minister and Housing Minister refused earlier this month to commit to KiwiBuild’s over-arching pledge of delivering 100,000 affordable homes in a decade.

“This is just the latest in a long line of missed KiwiBuild targets. First the Government promised 1000 houses in year one, then it was 300 houses, and now it’s simply ‘not-many-at-all’ houses.

“Nowadays you hardly even hear anyone from Labour say the word ‘KiwiBuild’ out loud in public, which tells you how toxic this ill-thought-out policy has become.

“Labour has been planning KiwiBuild since 2012 and Phil Twford had six years in Opposition to get the policy right. Yet 19 months into the Government’s term, it has only managed to build 83 houses.

“This latest failure is further evidence that Mr Twyford needs to resign his Housing and Urban Development portfolio. His inability to deliver on Labour’s flagship election promise has robbed both him and his party of any credibility in the eyes of the public.

“KiwiBuild was a dog of a policy from day one and there’s little Mr Twyford can do to salvage it at this point. Allowing him to keep going will only tarnish the Prime Minister’s reputation.

“National knows the answer to providing New Zealanders with houses is to reform our planning laws to make it easier to build, and to help community housing providers put roofs over people’s heads.”

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