Judith Collins - Housing and Urban Development

10 May 2017

The Government’s KiwiBuild mess continues to unravel as Phil Twyford further distances himself from his promise to build 100,000 houses and with confirmation he’s going to blow his $2 billion budget, National’s Housing and Urban Development spokesperson Judith Collins says.

“Media reports show that included in the Government’s plea to the private sector for help, its Invitation to Participate, is the admission the Government won’t ‘build’ 100,000 houses as promised, but will attempt to ‘facilitate’ them.

“So Phil Twyford has gone from promising to build 100,000 no ifs or buts to building some and buying some to now saying they’ll ‘facilitate’ the houses instead, whatever that means.

“The document also states that ‘there is insufficient funding for the Crown to deliver all 100,000 KiwiBuild dwellings by itself’. That’s in spite of Mr Twyford repeatedly assuring New Zealanders that $2 billion would be enough.

“That’s yet another broken promise from the Government, proof that its budget was always unrealistic and bad news for the other priority areas which will lose funding thanks to Mr Twyford’s failure to deliver on his ill-thought out pipe dream.

“To claim any success and keep its promise, the Government needs to build 100,000 houses over and above what would have happened already, but things seem to be going backwards.

“Instead, it’s raising the white flag and wrecking our building industry in the process.

“The mis-named KiwiBuild is a mess. The only thing that’s been consistent about it has been Phil Twyford’s constant wriggling out of his promises because he can’t possibly meet them.”

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