Housing Summit Would Make Housing Bill Urgency Debate Unnecessary

UnitedFuture will today support the Government's Urgency Motion in order to pass the Housing Legislation Amendment Bill but is calling on the Government to initiate a national housing summit to establish a long term work plan for housing in New Zealand.

"The use of Urgency in Parliament should be reserved for pieces of legislation that require the immediate attention of the House and must be quickly enacted to avoid creating potential social, economic or judicial problems for the country," said UnitedFuture Leader, Peter Dunne.

"This particular Bill is necessary for two reasons, first, the extension is needed to fill the time lag before the National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity and relevant district plans such as the Auckland Unitary Plan become operative.

“Second, in the current context of significant housing pressures in communities across New Zealand, it is especially important that measures that are in place to facilitate construction of much needed housing stock are not compromised or subject to petty politicking at the expense of New Zealand families.

“For those reasons I believe this Bill requires the urgent attention of the House and will therefore be supporting it,” said Mr Dunne.

However, Mr Dunne has called upon the Government to adopt a more long term approach when it comes to housing.

"This issue will continue to be affected by short term solutions as provided in the Bill if we cannot develop a long term strategy that has the input of all major stakeholders in the housing sector.

"That is why a housing summit that brings together all the interested and relevant parties is well overdue.

"This approach helped the current Government form the basis for their employment plan back in 2008 with the convening of the Prime Minister's Employment Summit and it will work again with regard to housing.

“A housing summit is the single best way to deliver a long-term work plan to address the issues of housing for New Zealand families,” said Mr Dunne.

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