Housing Minister, Megan Woods says New Zealand has achieved a major milestone of more than 10,000 additional public homes since Labour came into office.
Dr Woods said reaching 10,037 public houses was an “extremely satisfying” moment and a testament to Labour’s commitment to providing a safety net for people who need public housing.
As of 30 June, there are 76,271 public homes in New Zealand.
“Under National there were so many sell-offs of public housing that National left office with 1,500 fewer state homes than it began with,” said Minister Woods.
“National failed to invest in new public housing and instead bled $576 million out of the public housing agency in dividends. What’s more is that National failed to maintain the housing it did retain, and that deferred maintenance for pre-1970s housing is now costing tens of millions of dollars per year.”
Minister Woods said the current Government had rebuilt the state’s ability to grow and provide public housing with the biggest state house building programme since the 1970s.
“If National had built public housing at the same rate we are, there would be nearly 23,000 new state houses, accounting for 94% of those on the current waiting list,” she said.
“We firmly believe the state has a role in providing a safety net to people who need public housing. These ten thousand additional homes mean thousands of families and individuals have moved into warm, dry homes across the country from Northland to Invercargill.
“It’s not only those living in public housing that benefit from this pipeline of activity; regional economies and the construction sector is boosted with jobs and critical infrastructure investment, all helping to secure New Zealand’s economy for future generations.”
View housing dashboard here.
