Housing crisis? More money for mates

“When John Key promises $1 billion to ‘fix’ the housing crisis, he’s must be desperate. How does borrowing that much from overseas fix anything but bank profits?” asks Katherine Ransom, DSC spokesperson on social issues.

“Councils might get the loans interest-free, but someone has to pay it. More debt just makes our unequal economy worse, and it’s the most vulnerable people, those Key purports to help, who’ll get the bash.

“We do need a cash injection into housing, but it should come from our publicly-owned Reserve Bank. Just as RBNZ credit propped up banks and finance companies in the last global crisis, so could it create the cash – debt-free – for the housing crisis. The great Mickey Savage did it last century, and we can do it now.”

Katherine says it would help if some of the money went into repairing the run down, empty state housing NZ still owns. She calls for an immediate halt to the sale of further stock to private investors, and advocates buying back what’s already been sold.

She strongly suspects that big investors and developers will be the winners in any new builds, and struggling taxpayers will foot the bill not just for interest but also for ever-growing accommodation supplements, to cover rents that most lower income families can’t afford.

“Very few ‘first home buyers’ will get a look-in – that’s just political spin,” Katherine says. “There should also be stringent, effective penalties on investors who leave homes vacant while they wait for capital gains to produce the profits – but I’m not holding my breath.”

She can see further gutting of the already pathetic RMA. Under Key’s ‘borrow the money’ plan, there will be fewer trees and parks, more infill housing and more traffic in every city.

“John Key doesn’t care about ordinary Kiwis, shameful inequality, or people living in cars and suffering abuse for being poor,” Katherine declares. “He never has. This is just a desperate bid to raise himself in the polls.”

DSC calls for John Key’s resignation, effective immediately. He doesn’t have the vision or the empathy to do right by the people of New Zealand.

ENDS

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