Corin:
Well the National party says the government has broken its promise by scrapping its KiwiBuild targets. Yesterday the new minister, Megan Woods, ditched the target of building 100,000 homes over ten years saying “the pressure of meeting that target is partly to blame for the policy’s failure”.
She also announced they will reduce the deposit required for a government backed mortgage to 5% and remove the asset test for second chance home buyers.
National’s housing spokesperson Judith Collins says the new policy is a complete retreat by Labour and she joins us now. Morena.
Judith:
Oh, good morning Corin.
Corin:
A retreat, a humiliation – call it what you will, but does it make sense ah… to ditch this target?
Judith:
Well, I think they just need to just ditch the policy. It’s basically ditched now other than the name. Um, the only positive thing I can see out of yesterday’s policy announcement was the possibility of a… ah, shared equity scheme. But there’s no details, so… yeah, I think they should just ditch the name…
Corin:
(Interrupts) So, should there be no role for the government, or a future government, to build affordable homes for first home buyers?
Judith:
Well, they clearly haven’t been able to. That’s the problem…
Corin:
(Interrupts) Well, they still are going to build them, it’s just obviously they haven’t got a target.
Judith:
Really? Okay. Really? Okay. Well, look, um I don’t believe in pigs flying and I just really do think that KiwiBuild has been a total disaster.
The big role should be around freeing up the resource management act and planning rules and letting developers get on with this. And the fact is that the private sector has been busily building houses while the government has been tying itself up in…
Corin:
(Interrupts) Sure.
Judith:
…(indistinct) and red tape. So…
Corin:
(Interrupts) But… but my understanding is what… okay so there’s only been a few hundred built but there are thousands contracted to be built. Would National stop that?
Judith:
The problem is Corin… is that when you look at where some of them are built, or contracted to be built, they’re in places where they can’t actually sell them. We’ve got the problem with Wanaka – not only have they got these houses that they can’t sell they’ve also got ah… from memory about 211 more contracted there.
Then you’ve got issues like the area in from the old Carrington area where there’s apparently going to be about 5,000 new dwellings, the problem is there they haven’t even got (indistinct)…
Corin:
(Interrupts) Sure. But the government… I mean… to be fair Megan Woods has acknowledged that they’ve got all that wrong and that they’re trying to fix it and they’re going to put them on the open market; the houses in Wanaka. I want to come back to that question again. Would a future National government continue to build these affordable homes, which is a slice of the housing problem, or not? Would it… yes or no?
Judith:
They’re not affordable! So that’s just ridiculous. She’s now increased the costs up to $600k. I mean the fact is, it’s not affordable. Yesterday Megan Woods was talking of houses up to $1M…
Corin:
(Interrupts) Sure. But look… that’s fine, you’re entitled to have that view. I just wonder… I just need to know if National will continue to work the policy of building these houses… actually building, because there are thousands contracted.
Judith:
Well of course if they’re contracted then obviously, we will commit to ah, honouring those contracts because that’s what a good government should do. You can’t just come in and do what Phil Twyford did to the east-west link transport and just cut out entire contracts. So, we will in fact be honouring contracts. The issue is though, is that the best way to get housing built? And the answer is, no it’s not.
Corin:
What about state houses, there’s 12,000 people on a housing waiting list. Should the government, and potentially a future National government, in fact be putting the resources it’s putting into KiwiBuild, into state houses?
Judith:
Well, I think you’re dead right there Corin, and I’ve said that all along, there is absolutely a role for the state in helping people who otherwise would not be able to get into the private rental market or into their own home.
There’s also an opportunity to look at helping people who are currently state tenants, to see how we can help them to get an equity and get into their own home that they own themselves and will be home owners (indistinct)…
Corin:
(Interrupts) What’s National’s track record on state houses though, over nine years?
Judith:
State houses were being built but also…
Corin:
They were also being sold though, as well, weren’t they?
Judith:
Yes, oh actually Corin, that’s just a crock, isn’t it really? It was most sold to community housing providers in places like… oh, like Masterton for instance, which had been doing an excellent job.
I think there’s nothing wrong at all with the state helping community housing providers to actually provide far better wrap-around services than the state can ever provide. And that should be encouraged as well. Community houses… housing providers, whether they are councils or whether they are ah… trusts that have been set up for this very purpose, have already shown themselves to be doing a great job.There’s not one answer for everybody, there needs to be a whole variety of answers.
Corin:
Judith Collins, thank you very much for your time.
Judith:
Thank you.