Simon O'Connor - Housing (Social)

2 August 2019

For all its big promises about putting roofs over people’s heads, the only thing this Government has delivered is a sky-rocking list of people in need, National’s Social Housing spokesperson Simon O’Connor says.

“The number of people on the waiting list for social housing is now at an all-time high, which is a sad indictment on the Government’s housing policies.

“Things will not improve until the Government stops desperately trying to blame its failings on the previous Government and starts taking responsibility for the fact its policies have driven New Zealanders out of their homes.

“Rents are now increasing two and a half times faster than they were under National. The Government has also scared off landlords by burdening them with more costs and raising the spectre of a capital gains tax.

“Less housing stock is being freed up because of Labour’s decision to cancel public housing tenancy reviews.

“The addition of 2178 public houses to the market is welcome news, and given roughly two thirds of the houses built during the past two financial years were either contracted, consented or commenced by the previous National Government, it’s nice to see Megan Woods finally being positive about the work we were doing in this space.

“It’s also good to see the Government has been engaging community housing providers rather than trying to manipulate the market itself through terrible policies like KiwiBuild.

“But providers are saying they can do more and the Government needs to increase its efforts in this area.”

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