It’s time for the Government to front up to their housing disaster and stop misleading New Zealanders, National’s Housing spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“Labour MP Kiri Allan claimed on radio this morning that the Government has built 10,000 public houses, echoing a claim made repeatedly by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The Prime Minister also claims 10 per cent of the current state house stock has been built by Labour.

“These claims should be filed under ‘fiction’ in Labour’s Library of Misleading Statements.

“The Government’s own data shows that:

• The net number of Kainga Ora new builds since October 2017 is only 2,601 houses. The Government has actually demolished or sold 4700 houses in the last five years, contrary to their claims they would stop the ‘state house sell-off’.
• The Government has bought 1400 houses in the last five years and added them to the state house stock. These are not new houses built by the Government – they are just private homes converted into state homes.
• 4000 of the Government’s ‘10,000 new houses’ are redirects, where community housing providers lease properties from private landlords, then house a social housing tenant using a Government subsidy. Again, these are not new builds.

“The Government can’t spin its way out of New Zealand’s housing crisis. The way out is to build new houses, but Labour has been abysmally slow at getting on and building new social houses for people most in need.

“While Labour spins furiously to cover up their own incompetence, the social housing waitlist has increased by over 20,000 households and now sits at over 26,000 applicants. People in the most severe and urgent need of a state house (those classed as A20 on the waitlist) now wait over 420 days for a house, up from 45 days when Labour took office.

“The Government has spent $1 billion in the last five years on emergency housing, with 4000 households living in a motel, including nearly 4000 children.

“Labour’s housing policies have only worsened the housing crisis. The removal of interest deductibility for rental properties and the extension of the brightline test to 10 years have put pressure on rents, which are up $140 per week in the last five years. Kainga Ora has added thousands of extra staff but failed to build the houses New Zealand’s most vulnerable need.

“Labour have had half a decade to fix housing in New Zealand, but on every metric, things are worse, not better. Labour needs to stop blaming National, stop the outrageous spin, and get on with the job.”

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