Labour’s Housing Policy Looking Like KiwiBuild 2.0

PHOTO: National’s Housing spokesperson Nicola Willis

Press Release: New Zealand National Party

If Labour was serious about its housing policy it would’ve provided detail and criteria when it announced it, yet we’ve seen none of that, National’s Housing spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

“The Government has announced interest costs will no longer be deductible, but hasn’t been able to provide any detail on the policy.

“How will it work if someone has a mortgage across both new and existing properties? How will it work if someone has a mortgage on a farm that also has a rental property?

“None of this detail has been done.

“Labour has simply thrown a policy idea out there and said ‘we’ll work on the detail later’ with no regard for the uncertainty this creates.

“The lack of detail doesn’t stop there though.

“Labour’s $3.8 billion fund to increase the supply of houses hasn’t been signed off by Cabinet and amounts to nothing more than a one page back-of-the-envelope word-salad, with no criteria, targets or start dates.

“This is incredibly worrying given Labour has been in Government for three-and-a-half years, it’s had plenty of time to work out the detail.

“What’s worse is that any house building resulting from the fund won’t start until 2022 at the earliest. Where is this Government’s sense of urgency?

“Building more houses is the most important action for addressing our housing shortage and delivering for first-home buyers, yet the Minister admits we won’t see any houses built as a result of her policy for at least a year and a half.

“As it stands, the Government’s house-building proposal is no more believable than the Government’s earlier back-of-the-car proposal to build 100,000 KiwiBuild houses.

“National is urging Labour to put the peddle to the metal and hurry up and get houses built. There are community housing projects ready to go up and down the country, and the Minister should be using Government money to get spades in the ground building these houses tomorrow.