Rents driving hardship as Govt delays housing reform

This week marks six months in office for the Ardern-Peters coalition government and its indecision on fundamental housing reform is hurting New Zealanders. The Salvation Army yesterday said rising rents are causing hardship for many New Zealand families.

"The Government was elected to fix the housing crisis because National did nothing effective to ensure more homes were built”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“So far, Cabinet has not even considered the idea of changing the rules that would allow the private sector to deliver more houses.

"It has been content to blame immigrants and prioritise a xenophobic foreign house buyer ban which will do nothing for affordability.

“Last year Phil Twyford said: 'if we want a lasting solution to [the housing] problem, we have to make reforms that will allow the market to deliver better outcomes on its own’ by reforming 'highly restrictive planning rules like the urban growth boundary.’ He was right, but six months on the Government needs to act.

“ACT would create seperate urban development legislation, prioritise land supply, reduce red tape on developers, and incentivise councils to consent more land for development and build more infrastructure by sharing a portion of GST levied on construction”, says Mr Seymour.
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