Time For Action On Hutt Housing Need

Hutt campaign group VAN today released the first of six key policies for the upcoming Council elections.

"Council must serve the needs of residents", said VAN spokesperson Grant Brookes. "It should start by building more council houses.

"Everyone needs a secure roof over their head. But rising interest rates, rising rents and rising unemployment make securing a home more and more difficult", he said.

"On August 8, ASB became the first lender to lift its floating home loan interest rate. Further rate rises are expected for many borrowers this year. Meanwhile, renters will also face rising costs due to property tax changes in the last Budget.

"The jobless rate has leapt to 6.8 percent nationally.

"Now the government is saying that in future, state houses will be restricted to families 'most in need'.

"They responded favourably to last week's report from the Housing Shareholders Advisory Group, which recommended selling off state houses. Meanwhile, the number of individuals and families waiting for a Housing NZ rental in the Hutt Valley is 375 and rising.

"Even before this news, Hutt City Council's Housing Policy made alarming reading", Grant said. "Two years ago, the Council projected that population growth and trends towards smaller households will create a shortfall of 3,000 homes in Lower Hutt by 2023.

"Yet they have no realistic plan for how this housing need will be met.

"New vision is needed. We want an expanded programme of council house construction will provide affordable homes for people who need them, create jobs and stimulate the local economy, while building up assets for the ratepayers of the city."

VAN – Valley Action Network is standing candidates for Hutt City Council committed to:

* A city for the residents - not for property developers & investors
* No water meters, no privatisation - protect river & residents
* Build council houses - create jobs, assets & affordable homes
* No GST on rates - a tax on a tax is robbery
* Council change, not climate change - a future for our kids
* Free public transport - it makes climate sense & serves the people

VAN's housing policy is reprinted below.

Build council houses – Create jobs, assets & affordable homes

The dream of owning your own home is now out of reach for many Hutt residents. In the last 15 years, house prices in Lower Hutt have trebled. Incomes have fallen far behind, and now unemployment is up and doubts are growing about future prospects.

Social housing, provided by councils and Housing NZ, used to make up a third of New Zealand's rental market. Now it's down to 19 percent.

Meanwhile 10,500 people sit on the Housing NZ waiting list, including 375 individuals and families in the Hutt Valley, and the waiting list is growing.

Hutt City Council admits there’s a problem, with many people “locked out of home ownership by high prices, and rental increases stretching many households”.

The problem is set to get worse. The Council’s housing arm, UrbanPlus, aims to increase the number of council houses in Lower Hutt from 187 to 210 by 2013.

Yet an additional 3,000 housing units will be needed in the Hutt Valley before 2023.

In the last year, UrbanPlus increased the housing stock by just 4 new units.

The Council says that “market cycles” will fix the housing problem. But the ongoing global financial crisis has shown that “market cycles” don’t always fix things. Hutt City Council must take some responsibility.

As recently as 1997 the Council owned 600 flats, which were let at reduced rents to those in need. This helped keep rents down for everyone.

But a rash privatisation programme from the late 1990s saw the flats sold off, along with most of the family silver.

The Council promised that the new landlord would be “socially responsible” and protect tenants for the “long term”.

But just three years after buying the 44 units in Britannia St in Petone, the new landlord sold them for a $2 million profit. All the tenants were evicted.

Wellington, by comparison, kept its 2,300 council flats. So it was able to negotiate a $220 million cash injection from the government in 2007 to pay for housing upgrades.

Ratepayers of Lower Hutt have now lost tens of millions of dollars due to our council’s ideological belief in privatisation, as the increased value of former council assets has flowed instead to private owners and government funding opportunities have been missed.

Today, the Council is willing to give private landlords even more ratepayer money. It offers “rates holidays” or secret loans worth millions to developers, like the one who wanted to build apartments on Daly Street.

Enough is enough. It’s time to reverse the priorities of the last decade and replace them with sensible policies for residents and the environment.

New, environmentally friendly houses use less energy and water and improve the health of residents.

At a time when economic woes are throwing Hutt workers onto the dole, a programme of council house building would create jobs and apprenticeship opportunities, especially for our young people.

If elected, VAN pledges to:

• Increase UrbanPlus’ target for new houses from 210 by 2013 to 250 by 2013.

• Create a long term strategy to restore council housing to 600 units by 2023, creating 1,900 jobs.

In the long term these council houses will pay for themselves, through the increased value of Council assets, increased income from rents and other revenue sources. The necessary capital to start building can be borrowed against the future asset.

ENDS

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