The National Party’s housing policy is vacant; with no new funding and no timelines attached to its delivery says Labour Housing Spokesperson Megan Woods.

“National hasn’t committed a single extra cent to build more houses, but somehow think they can get more out of Labour’s existing pool of money,” Megan Woods said.

“National haven’t set any targets for how many additional homes they will deliver or provided any timeline for delivery.

“Labour’s proud of our public house build programme. We’ve already delivered 13,000 additional public houses – the most built by any Government since the 1950s.

“We’ve worked closely with Community Housing Providers to achieve this goal, increasing their funding from $95 million in 2016/17 under National to $535 million in 2021/22 under Labour.

“While National talks a big game about working with Community Housing Providers it’s Labour that’s delivered.

“We’ve added more public housing with Community Housing Providers than any government in New Zealand’s history. Over half of the public homes that have been delivered so far are from Community Housing Providers - 7,519 out of 13,276.

“We’re also working closely with these providers on the delivery of the extra 3000 homes we will build by 2025. So National seem to just be copying what Labour is already doing.

“The fact is you can’t trust National on housing. The last time they were in Government they sold off public houses, leaving 1,500 fewer homes than they started with.

“National’s policy includes no new funding for public housing beyond what Labour’s already committed to.

“That means no extra funding for Nicola Willis’ commitment just two days ago to build 1000 additional houses every year in Auckland. That looks like the first broken promise of the election.

“National has no costings, no timelines and no credibility either,” Megan Woods said.

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