2. METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
Does he stand by his statement that “the Government is playing its part by spending billions on infrastructure, which is underpinning the employment of thousands of skilled and unskilled people”?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
Yes, I do. I understand that recent estimates are that, for instance, the programme of building roads of national significance is employing around 8,000 people. A large construction firm told me recently that over 90 percent of its work was Government-funded. I do not think there is any doubt at all that the Government’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure spending programme is well-timed and is employing thousands of people who, in a recession, would otherwise lose their job.
Does the Minister accept that the estimated 20,000 people living in caravans, camping grounds, garages, and boarding houses consider housing to be critical infrastructure?
Yes, they do, and at the beginning of this year the Government put together a group of New Zealanders who are experts in housing to deal with the legacy that was left to this Government, which is a very expensive and inefficient social housing sector that is not helping nearly as many New Zealanders as it should. I am pleased to say that everyone who is interested in social housing broadly supports the Government’s new direction and we will proceed to implement it in the new year.
How much money is the Government spending on building enough homes for the 20,000 people in extreme housing need, and how many jobs will be created by that spend?
For the benefit of the member I point out that the Government owns $15 billion worth of houses. In our view, not enough New Zealanders are being assisted because of the inefficient management of those houses. The Housing Shareholders’ Advisory Group tells us that about 30 percent of those 67,000 houses are the wrong size and in the wrong place, or have the wrong people in them. If we can make a 30 percent improvement, it will easily be enough to help most of the people who have serious housing need, and we are keen to achieve that.
Does the Minister agree that with the current level of Government spending for the proposed 1,500 new State homes over 4 years, the Government could expect to fill the current deficit of 70,000 homes in New Zealand in about 200 years’ time?
We are moving from targeting a fixed number of houses, which was the method of the last 10 years, to targeting needy New Zealanders. That means we will not be focusing as much on some magic number of houses, because, as I said, 30 percent of them are the wrong size and in the wrong place. We believe that we should focus on people rather than houses, and, as we do that, we will be able to help more people with the 67,000 houses that we have.
Does the Minister accept that the 375,000 children who live in cold, damp housing at present, which causes them severe illness—at great cost to the health system—could benefit a great deal not from the 1,500 houses over 4 years that his Government proposes but from the 6,000 State homes over 3 years, creating 28,000 new jobs, that the Green Party has proposed in its Mind the Gap package?
What we do agree on is that insulating houses is a good thing. The Government has allocated $700 million for subsidies to assist houses across New Zealand to be insulated, and I think we might have got to 100,000 houses. We are aiming to ensure that almost all of the State housing stock is properly insulated. I have to say that we were disturbed when we came into Government to find just what bad shape that State housing stock was in, but we are spending considerable money upgrading it and making sure that those children can benefit from warm, dry houses, which will help their health.