Good quality housing and targeted support is important for the health and wellbeing of New Zealand families and communities.
National’s reforms of the social housing sector are an important part of that.
National’s new Cabinet line-up reflects our unwavering focus on housing – one of our key priorities.
We have set up a three-pronged team of ministers to boost social housing provision and improve housing affordability, while supporting young Kiwis saving to buy their own home through KiwiSaver HomeStart.
Going forward, National will continue our programme of action to ensure Kiwi families have access to warmer, healthier, and low-cost homes – whether that’s social housing, renting in the private market, or their own homes.
Efficient run
We will run the state housing portfolio efficiently on behalf of taxpayers who expect it to be responsive to need, and who are entitled to expect their investment to be well managed. We are focused on encouraging construction of more affordable housing based on the recommendations of the Productivity Commission Report on housing affordability.
This includes continuing to free up more residential land, reducing compliance costs, improving sector productivity, and facilitating competition in the building material market.
Helping the needy
One of the key messages we picked up from the campaign trail was that New Zealanders want us to do more for the most vulnerable in our society, and ensuring a fit-for-purpose social housing sector is an important part of that expectation.
Our goal is housing more people in need, not to own the most houses. We need more people involved in the provision of social housing, but what will not change is that we will be paying the bills.
National will support a growing role for community housing providers in delivering social housing through the Social Housing Fund and Housing New Zealand, while continuing to investigate other ways to improve the community provision of quality social housing.
We will also continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Christchurch to complete the repairs of 5000 earthquake-damaged state houses and the building of 700 new ones in Canterbury by the end of 2015.
National will continue our good record in providing quality state houses for those with the highest housing needs, ensuring state housing is there for the right people, for the right length of time.
Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi has been Member of Parliament on National List since 2008.
