Key Selling State Assets, Pushing Crisis on to Charities

new-zealand-first-party

Wed Jan 28 2015 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Key Selling State Assets, Pushing Crisis on to Charities

Wednesday, 28 January 2015, 3:09 pm
Press Release: New Zealand First Party

Selling thousands of state houses to charities will do little to solve the country’s housing crisis, says New Zealand First.

Prime Minister John Key is selling state assets, paid for by the taxpayer, to charities, that are funded by the taxpayer,” says New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters. “Moving people from one landlord to another is not solving a crisis.

“Mr Key plans to bulldoze Housing New Zealand suburbs to ‘free up’ land for a mix of social and high income housing, playing into developers hands.

“The government is way off target and unable to address the housing crisis in New Zealand – which encompasses private housing, rental housing and state housing.

“With too few houses to buy or rent, prices and rental costs are overwhelming.

“Some tenants remain in their state house because there is a shortage of houses to rent.

“Mr Key is in denial over the lack of supply and plans a review of 5000 tenancies. He wants to move tenants out to ‘free up’ places.. Where does he expect them to go?

“He wants to accelerate the disposal of state houses to better line up with need, saying 30 per cent of tenants only want a one-bedroom home, which make up only 9 per cent of state housing stock. Can we expect in future to have suburbs of cookie-cutter homes stacked among the McMansions the developers have built on former state-owned land.

“The answer to the long waiting lists, high house prices and rents is to build homes. Mr Key continues to deliberately miss the point.

“Beloved of the National Party is the market. The market in New Zealand is a dramatic lack of supply against highly inflated demand.

“The National Party can’t even grasp the philosophy they claim to be ruling by,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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