11 July 2016

Housing Approach Still Piecemeal

UnitedFuture leader, Peter Dunne, is renewing his call for a national housing summit to develop real solutions to the country's housing problems.

"Over the past week we have seen an abundance of essentially scattergun policies proposed indeed, the game of political football has been quite active," said Mr Dunne.

“National says Labour is just copying its policies and then, curiously, that it will not work – and Labour announces a so-called affordable housing package, without any indication of how young families will be financed into these homes.

“It all sounds like the Mad Hatters Tea Party, if it were not so serious.

"We still have the fundamental problem that is politicians trying to outspend each other, what we need is real solutions from the sectors that need to implement them.

"We can only get that through having all the stakeholders come together and develop a thorough workplan, involving central and local government, the
Reserve Bank and the trading banks, the building industry, and social housing agencies " Mr Dunne said.

UnitedFuture is calling on all political parties to come to the table and work on convening the summit, a model of policy making that has a proven track record.

"We can see the success of summits like these, look at National's Jobs Summit back in 2009, that conference led to a meaningful workplan that developed solutions in the long and short terms."

UnitedFuture believes the fundamental goal of any housing summit must be more comprehensive than asking political parties who can promise more billions to solve a problem.

"We need to be looking at a wide range of solutions that will ensure that a family that earns a steady income can be able to save for a reasonable period of time and be in a position to put a deposit on a house." Mr Dunne says.

"We will not get to that goal by turning this debate into a political quagmire."

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