Broke Housing New Zealand a symbol of National’s economic failures

Reports that Housing New Zealand is about to run out of money, just as it’s supposed to be building new houses to alleviate the housing crisis, is a symptom of National’s economic mismanagement, the Green Party said today.

“Bill English has run Housing New Zealand into the ground and now he’s going to have to do an emergency bail-out,” Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said.

“Bill English should have used Housing New Zealand to kick-start a Government-building programme back in 2009 when the private market was slowing down. That would have created employment in the recession and built up housing stock for when demand lifted again.

“I think it’s fair to ask if running down Housing New Zealand’s accounts is all part of National’s original plan to sell off huge swathes of state homes and land.

“National’s approach of treating homes as commodities has led to underinvestment in Housing New Zealand, to the point where it is about to go under.

“National needs to stop treating housing as a commodity and start seeing it for what it is, essential infrastructure for the whole country.

“This is huge mismanagement by National of Housing New Zealand, right in the middle of a housing crisis,” said Mr Shaw.

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