Media Statement
November 19, 2012

Labour Affordable Housing Scheme A ‘Patch-On Solution’

A New Economics Party Spokesperson Deirdre Kent said that although Labour had the right goal, their proposed method of doing it doesn’t get to the bottom of the problem and is an artificial patch-on solution. “While land remains as an asset class to speculate on, property prices will keep rising. It is private landowners and banks who reap the unearned gains from rising land prices, and this widens the gap between rich and poor.”

“Land now comprises an average of 60% of the value of a property in Auckland,” she said. “These 100,000 affordable homes will be bought cheaply and flicked over for a profit, so at least Labour should put a caveat on each title to prevent that.”

“Only by addressing the rising land price problem at its roots can we wrench power from the overseas owned banks, which took $3.5 billion in profits last year out of the country. Other solutions are artificial and only work for a while.

“Until we wake up and see that the property bubble in Auckland concentrates wealth with landowners and banks, we will not make much progress in bridging the wealth gap,” she said. “Land should be treated as quite a different asset class to buildings. We need a method to take land out of the market place,” she said.

She said Labour’s weak Capital Gains Tax won’t touch the affordable housing problem, because it leaves the family home untouched and is set far too low anyway.

New Economics Party
http://neweconomics.net.nz

ENDS

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Mighty River: 'Mum And Dad’ Investors Myth Busted

Green Party research, confirmed by Treasury, shows that half of the shares in Mighty River Power that National sold to retail investors went to just 13,000 people and that 10 percent of the retail shares went to just 400 wealthy people and organisations, Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today.

The sale of Mighty River Power saw 113,000 retail investors, referred to as ‘mum and dad’ investors by the National Government, buy 26.9 percent of the company. Analysis by the Greens and Treasury shows that half of those shares were, in fact, purchased by fewer than 13,000 people who bought an average of nearly $35,000 worth of shares...

“The truth is that 98 percent of New Zealanders bought no shares at all. Half the retail shares went to just 0.3 percent of the population, and a tiny group of just 400 wealthy individuals and organisations got 10 percent of the retail shares. More>>