Phil Twyford
Housing Spokesperson
27 June 2014
Labour announces Canterbury Housing kick-start
Labour has announced a package of commitments to kick start the Canterbury housing recovery and fill the shortage of
affordable housing.
Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford said Labour will fix the housing crisis by building 10,000 affordable homes much more
quickly than is currently happening.
“Failure to get the residential rebuild going fast enough has allowed a severe and prolonged housing shortage to
develop. It is holding back the speed of the recovery.
“Labour will take a more hands-on approach. We will roll up our sleeves and actually build houses. The current
Government’s approach has been to hope a broken market will fix itself. The fact that fewer than 1000 of the 12-15,000
houses needed have been built shows that approach has failed.
“We would earmark the first 3000 houses built for affordable rental housing as a way of immediately making rents more
affordable. The homes would be retained as rentals until the crisis has been fixed, and then sold to first home buyers.
“In the first six months in Government we will also build 400 new homes to be used as temporary emergency housing for
families in need. Too many people in Canterbury have fallen through the cracks and are in their fourth winter in
substandard or overcrowded housing. We will provide secure, warm, dry housing and support to help them find longer- term
affordable accommodation.
“We will also fix the anomaly that has denied Cantabrians the same level of accommodation supplement that people in
Auckland get when they are paying the same rent. This will increase the maximum payment by $35-50 a week.
“We will kick-start the redevelopment of the city centre, as well as suburban and town centres across Canterbury. We
will work with the Council, developers and the community to build vibrant medium density centres with affordable
housing, green space and high urban design standards,” Phil Twyford said.
For more detail:
ENDS