MEDIA RELEASE
Treasury Tells National That Housing Policy Will Make Problem Worse
6 OCTOBER 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the National Party to rethink its flagship “Home Start” housing subsidy policy after the NBR reported that Treasury advised the policy is ‘poor value for money’; poorly targeted; and likely to make housing even more unaffordable.

The advice appears inconsistent with comments by John Key in August that the Government "certainly made sure the Treasury and the Reserve Bank were comfortable."

Jordan Williams, Executive Director of the Taxpayers’ Union, says:

“This is a classic case of politicians thinking that throwing taxpayer money at a problem will solve it. Treasury is just repeating what every housing expert will tell you – it’s a supply-side problem. More money on the demand side will just make it worse."

"The Treasury advice supports the Taxpayers’ Union view that it’s better to give people a tax cut so they can save more, rather than award subsidies for a few."

“If this is Treasury’s advice when it’s ‘comfortable’ we’d hate to see the analysis when it's anxious."
ENDS

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