Hon Phil Heatley
National Party Spokesman for Housing

5 November 2011 Media Statement

Building better housing under National

National will continue to build better housing and more effectively manage the State housing stock, National Party Housing Spokesman Phil Heatley says.

"Over the past three years, National has increased the overall State housing portfolio by more than 1000 homes and completed upgrades to tens of thousands of other homes, including insulation, clean heating and essential maintenance," says Mr Heatley.

"We've also established the new Social Housing Unit, which will lead to even more social and affordable housing for New Zealanders by working with other organisations, including not-for-profit, iwi, and private sector providers.

“We have supported the work of this unit by more than tripling the funding available to support non-government providers of social housing from $12 million to $40 million in the last three years. We will continue to support the growth of this sector.

"When we came into office, many State houses were run down, in the wrong areas, not of the right size, and not going to those families most in need. We will continue to reverse that situation," says Mr Heatley.

"National is also staying strong on crime. Over the past three years, 400 tenants have been moved on from State housing for vandalism, fraud, and other serious anti-social behaviour, and they have been replaced with tenants in genuine need.

"We will continue to ensure there is a no-nonsense approach to those few State housing tenants acting outside the law, and will crack down on any illegal behaviour," Mr Heatley says.

"National will support a suspensions policy so a State house tenant evicted for illegal behaviour will not be eligible for another State house for up to a year. Neighbouring state house tenants and those in privately owned homes deserve peaceful, crime-free streets."

Visit National's Housing policy at: http://national.org.nz/PDF_General/Housing_policy.pdf

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