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Comment on reshuffle from Phil Twyford

7 June 2019


Efforts to tackle the national housing crisis are bigger than one person. I’m pleased to be part of a team working to ensure all New Zealanders have a warm, dry and safe home, whether it is one they rent or own.

I serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister and it’s an honour to be in her Cabinet. Our Government remains committed to addressing the national housing crisis and I will still have a part to play in that in my role as Urban Development Minister.

I’m proud of what we have achieved in housing to date. It’s been a huge job to turn around years of neglect but we are starting to see positive results. We have:

Stopped the sell-off of state houses
Ended flawed meth evictions
Banned letting fees
Introduced Health Homes standards
Begun to modernise outdated rental laws
Changed tax settings to discourage speculators
Banned offshore speculators from buying existing houses
Built 1400 new state houses and ramped up Housing NZ’s build programme nine fold
Put more than 2300 families into public housing
Built more than 202 KiwiBuild homes with around a further 430 under construction and more than 10,000 contracted and committed
Restored Housing NZ as a compassionate, world-class public housing landlord focused on the wellbeing of its tenants
Established a $1.5 billion investment in rejuvenating Porirua East, one of New Zealand’s most deprived areas
Negotiated the purchase of the Mt Albert Unitec campus for housing
Secured ongoing substantial investment in tackling homelessness through the internationally-acclaimed Housing First programme

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I’m as frustrated as anyone else that we have not been able to deliver as many KiwiBuild houses as we had hoped. I’ve put my all into it. But I look forward to continuing to help Megan Woods and the other housing Ministers, by focusing on the legislative and regulatory tools we need to facilitate affordable house building.

I’m also excited about cracking on with modernising our transport sector and getting my teeth into the Economic Development portfolio.

ends

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