8. PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) Link to this
to the Minister of Housing
Does he have confidence in Housing New Zealand Corporation; if so, why?
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Housing) Link to this
Housing New Zealand Corporation does a very competent job in managing nearly 67,000 homes for Kiwi families. Like all organisations, of course, there is always room for further improvement.
Russell Fairbrother Link to this
How successful has Housing New Zealand Corporation been in meeting community demand for affordable, quality housing?
Since 1999 Housing New Zealand Corporation has increased the number of homes it has available by 6,871, following a decade when National sold 13,000 houses. It has introduced income-related rents for 90 percent of its tenants on low incomes. It has introduced the Housing Innovation Fund, making available $285 million to local government and community organisations to upgrade and develop homes for needy families. It has substantially redeveloped six communities in New Zealand and refitted 13,568 houses to make them warmer, drier, and more energy efficient. And so it goes on.
Pita ParaoneTēnā koe, Madam Speaker. How many people are currently on the State housing waiting list, and how many of them were not New Zealand citizens at the time they applied for housing?
I will remind that member again, as I have done many times in this House before, that people cannot get a State house in New Zealand unless they are citizens or residents, and if they are residents they have to have been in New Zealand for 2 years, unless they are refugees—but they are still required to be residents of New Zealand.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Although I think the Minister may have addressed my question, it asked about the number of applicants who were non - New Zealand citizens at the time of making application, not about the allocations themselves.
I imagine that if people who are non-citizens or non-residents have gone to a Housing New Zealand Corporation neighbourhood unit to put themselves down for a house, they would be told that they could not get one if they were not a resident or a New Zealand citizen. Anybody who was anticipating his or her residency or citizenship being granted may well have applied for a Housing New Zealand Corporation house, but I could not give an answer as to how many people did so.
Why did the Minister hide behind rateable valuations last year, when he said there were only three State houses worth over $1 million, instead of revealing to this House Quotable Value’s more realistic market valuations of 145 houses being worth $1 million - plus, or was he embarrassed about that information?
I am not in the habit of hiding behind anyone, but I would like to say that with increasing housing values and the rising values of houses, of course Housing New Zealand Corporation houses will increase in value. As I have said to the member in the past, just because a house is worth over $1 million that does not mean to say it does not have a valid place to be a State house.
What confidence should the thousands of needy families on the waiting list have in this Minister if he refuses to trade in those 145 grossly overvalued houses for several hundred average State houses, so they too can have a roof over their heads?
A lot more confidence than they should have in a spokesperson for National, which sold 13,000 houses—mostly to speculators, not tenants. I have said in this House many times before that the Government does sell some houses. Some houses may well be sold and the proceeds used for reinvestment for social housing. But this Government is committed to not selling off State houses, because we want New Zealanders to have the chance to live in affordable homes.
Since the Minister is claiming in this House today that he is selling or redeveloping these million dollar - plus homes, why is it that Quotable Value tells us the corporation had 124 of these million-dollar homes in 2005 but has 145 now?
First of all, let us clarify that I never said that we would be selling off all of those houses. I said that Housing New Zealand has a policy of sometimes selling a few discrete houses for redevelopment. But in the end these are State assets that provide homes for people. That spokesperson comes from National, which hocked off State houses while in Government. I wonder how he deals with the 11,000 people who are now on the waiting list because a National Government sold off 13,000 State houses.
Why does the Minister not better arrange the housing stock and get more houses for his investment if he really cares about low-income people?