[Sitting date: 02 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:5. Text is subject to correction.]

7. ALFRED NGARO (National) to the Minister for Building and Housing : What does the latest building consents data and National Construction Pipeline report show about the increased level of residential activity over the past year, particularly in Auckland and Christchurch?

Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Housing): Residential building is booming, with over 24,000 consents issued in the last year, growth in Auckland of 31 percent, and in Christchurch of 89 percent. We have exceeded the Auckland Housing Accord target of 9,000 homes, with over 11,000, and the number of apartments built in the last year in Auckland is 1,974, a 150 percent growth over the previous year. In Christchurch we are now building houses at the rate of over 4,000 houses per year, which is more than three times the historic average. The National Construction Pipeline report is projecting $50 billion of residential housing over the next 3 years, which is the largest investment in housing in New Zealand’s history.

Alfred Ngaro : What progress has the Government made in Christchurch in addressing the major building consenting problems that led to the city council losing its accreditation?

Hon Dr NICK SMITH : The Government’s intervention in Christchurch building consenting has been successful, with changes in leadership, recruitment of new building consenting staff, and investment in new information systems. The latest report I have received from my ministry is that re-accreditation of Christchurch City Council is only weeks away. I am encouraged that over 4,000 building consents have been successfully issued in the last year, which is more than three times the historic rate. This is a huge boost for Christchurch’s housing recovery.

Alfred Ngaro : How are the Government’s housing reforms helping achieve an increase in supply and what further steps is the Government planning?

Hon Dr NICK SMITH : The process of converting land to housing takes six steps. The first is getting the land rezoned. The special housing areas policy has enabled us to do 80 of those, covering an area of over 4,000 hectares. The next step is the resource consents for subdivision: 41 of those have been approved for 477 new homes in those special housing areas and there are 63 further applications in process for another 3,600. Of course, that special housing legislation expires in 2016 and that is why the Government’s Resource Management Act reforms will be a crucial part. Of course, the Government is also introducing the KiwiSaver Homestart loans scheme. That will enable tens of thousands of New Zealanders to get a greater amount of support from Government for putting together a deposit for a home and, of course, we are doubling those grants for new homes.

Phil Twyford : Will he finally accept that even after he has gazetted 80 special housing areas and thousands of new sections and subdivisions, only five houses have been built in 12 months; that Auckland land bankers are not intimidated by all his press statements and photo ops and prefer to sit and watch their land values go through the roof; and is he ready to accept now that the only option left is to adopt Labour’s KiwiBuild policy and actually build affordable houses for people to live in?

Mr SPEAKER : I call the Hon Nick Smith—any of those three supplementary questions.

Hon Dr NICK SMITH : I am delighted the member has asked me about Labour’s KiwiBuild’s policy. That was resoundingly rejected by the voters of New Zealand at the election and I am not surprised why, because while Labour had promised all the way through for 3 years that it was going to build 10,000 houses per year, he actually admitted in the last week that it would do just 600 in the first year. I also note that since Labour announced the KiwiBuild policy the reforms that this Government has announced have enabled us to grow from 1,200 houses being built per year to 24,000 houses being built by the private sector. I think we would all agree that is a much better policy.

ENDS

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