Phil Heatley MP
National Party Housing Spokesman

23 July 2008

HNZ’s ‘wild goose chase’ nets dozens of geese

“An exercise to identify Housing New Zealand scams which the Minister once described as a wild goose chase, has bagged dozens of ‘geese’,” says National Party Housing spokesman Phil Heatley.

“Housing New Zealand identified 44 cases of sub-letting in the year to April. The most serious case shows the sub-letting was allowed to continue unchecked for eight-and-a-half years. I suspect we’re seeing only the tip of an iceberg.”

Mr Heatley gathered the information during the estimates process**, after raising concerns about alleged sub-letting of state houses as far back as March 2006.

“In November 2006, the Housing Minister defended HNZ’s record on tracing those involved in sub-letting, challenging me to produce one example, and describing any attempt to track these scams as ‘a wild goose chase’. It now seems the wild geese are coming home to roost.”

Mr Heatley says the information he has obtained also shows that some tenants have got away with sub-letting for years.

“Cases have been found to date back as far as eight-and-a-half years. Other long-term sub-letting arrangements include eight years three months, five years eight months, and five-and-a-half years.”

Mr Heatley says Labour started taking the issue more seriously after he raised concerns about a sub-letting complaint that languished on an HNZ desk for months.

“Many of these sub-letters are occupying homes that would otherwise go to one of the 10,000 needy families on the HNZ waiting list. If only Labour had taken sub-letting more seriously when I first raised the alarm two years ago.”

ENDS

Heatley__Estimates_Questions.pdf

© Scoop Media