A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today.

Houses across the country are ballooning in value, meaning many homeowners are earning more on capital gains than average income earners. Additionally, there are now 22,409 households eligible for public housing still waiting to be homed since the end of November last year.

“Housing is a human right and government must do more. Homes first and foremost are for people to live in, not just a way for wealthy people to get even wealthier” says Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson.

“We should be using more of the tools in the toolbox to fix this runaway housing crisis, and that includes taxing wealth or capital gains. Additionally we must see public and community housing builds continue to increase, faster.

“The Greens this year will continue advocating for a fairer tax system that taxes wealth as well as income. We must stop rampant property speculation and the growing inequality it is causing.

“We’re frustrated. We’ve been quite clear, Government is not doing enough if we are not putting all the tools on the table so that people can afford to rent, buy kai for their households, and even own their own homes.

“Just yesterday we saw food grants are through the roof. Up three-fold from 2017 to 1.5 million. We must all be doing more to stop poverty and housing inequality.”

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