Government needs to ‘up the ante’ in leaky homes deal

The government needs to significantly increase its contribution to the leaky homes rescue package presented to metropolitan mayors to cover the contribution of the building and construction industry, North Shore City Mayor Andrew Williams said today.

“In this afternoon’s ‘teleconference’ with other metropolitan Mayors to discuss the government proposal, I will be urging the government to increase their 10 percent contribution closer to that of the local councils, to take account of the missing contribution from the building and construction industry,” Mayor Williams said.

“It is the building and construction industry that lobbied for the use of these sub-standard materials, designed and built these homes, and shoddy workmanship, bad design and poor building systems are acknowledged as major factors in leaky homes . Yet the industry has cleverly avoided making any contribution to the government’s proposed leaky homes rescue package .”

“Councils are in the gun for the bulk of repair cost negotiated settlements under the ‘last man standing’ principle, because many of the developers and builders have either collapsed their companies or have gone broke. So ratepayers are picking up the tab for changes to the building code which allowed the use of untreated timber framing and monolithic cladding without ventilation cavities. The now proven failure in these building standards is more properly the responsibility of central government.”

“John Key and Maurice Williamson are to be commended for showing genuine leadership by presenting their proposal and fronting up with a contribution. However, their 10 percent contribution is not sufficient to cover both the moral responsibility of central government for the failings of deregulating the building code and also to cover the ‘socialised’ debt to leaky home owners of the building and construction industry.”

"We must remember that Government has already taken a great deal in taxes - GST, payroll and company taxes - from the building of these leaky homes. The government stands to clip the ticket again from the same taxes when all this rebuilding and repairs are undertaken. So their 10 percent contribution is insufficient in relation to the offsetting revenues they will receive from this whole exercise."

"This also ignores the huge health and welfare costs to the nation of families living in damp sub-standard housing. The government needs to come to the table with a fairer deal which recognises that they need to fix this major health issue, which in turn will be a saving on the nation's health bill."

“Whatever deal is finally arrived at, it is essential that we are open and honest with ratepayers, and taxpayers, and that they are ‘on-board’ with the deal . Otherwise we run the risk of a ratepayer backlash as the true cost to ratepayers of fixing leaky homes is revealed in their ‘super city’ rates bills and by the massive debt that will be racked up by the ‘super city’ to cover up for it,” Mayor Williams said.

"This is, in reality, a national disaster and as such needs to be treated by the government with the greatest importance, as any other disaster affecting our country would be," said Mayor Andrew Williams.

ENDS

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