As you may know, I [Simon Moutter] took on the role of Chairing the Board of Kāinga Ora in June 2024, with the intent of doing some service-oriented work for our country. Like many New Zealanders, I’d heard a lot about them through the media. Back then, Kāinga Ora had no friends. The media savaged it on a daily basis. Practically every stakeholder viewed it as a poorly run organisation and the public perceptions of its performance were in many respects, far worse than the reality. As I got to understand the organisation, I came to appreciate the critical role Kāinga Ora plays in housing 200,000 mostly very good, albeit sometimes very vulnerable, people. I also came to respect the passionate team from all walks of life who work at
Kāinga Ora and the many other organisations that play important roles in the social housing system.
Right from the get-go, it struck me as an opportunity to figure out if the application of the business transformation methodologies I’ve learned over my career could be successfully applied to a Government agency. Just 18 months on, it turns out they can! The first step was to align with Ministers Willis and Bishop on a future which narrowed Kāinga Ora’s focus to its core mission – improve tenant outcomes, be a firm but fair landlord and provide and manage social housing in a financially sustainable way. Then, with the help of some seriously capable business leaders; Adrian Littlewood (who helped build the Reset Plan), Matt Crockett (who took on the CEO role for 15 months), a strong line-up of new Board Members and a handful of other experienced business transformation people, the outcomes have been extraordinary. It is the fastest and most dramatic turnaround in performance of a large business that I have been involved with. I’ve been amazed at what Kāinga Ora’s people have been able to do with clarity of focus, good leadership, faster operating rhythm and some top-shelf transformation methodologies learnt many years ago from McKinsey and taught to them by Matt and a few others we brought in from the old Spark team and a couple of other companies Matt has worked with.
Before the Reset, our tenant and community outcomes were inconsistent at best. Today our tenants are more satisfied with their homes, more satisfied with our maintenance, they feel safer in their homes and 5000 of them have moved out of rent debt, a massive stress in their lives.
Before the Reset, the organisation was on an unsustainable pathway toward annual operating deficits approaching $800m and running up debt at a rapid rate, rising from around $14bn and expected to hit $28bn within a few years, which would have put the Government’s books under enormous pressure. Post execution of the Reset Plan, we have already halved the deficit (forecast FY26) and the organisation is on track to get close to an accounting surplus by FY29. Driving this is a big improvement in operating earnings (EBITDA) which was at only $200m and falling pre-Reset, where we are now on track to deliver $1000m of EBITDA in FY27. This big improvement in operating cashflow, combined with reduced unit costs for construction, a sensible moderation of construction activity volumes and greater recycling of capital from the sale of old properties unsuitable for social housing, means debt will now peak at around $20bn, a huge relief to the Government’s books.
Before the Reset, Kāinga Ora had around 3,400 staff. Today we are down to 2,285, yet every KPI is still heading in the right direction, a reminder that with the application of strong commercial disciplines, even Government organisations can be efficient.
Matt finishes his contract period with us this month (the most I could get out of him was 15 months unfortunately) and he is handing over to Tracey Taylor, who has been Matt’s key partner in executing the Reset Plan. I am confident she will carry on with the True Transformation phase ahead of us and deliver the next wave of improvements over coming years. We all owe Matt our gratitude for his outstanding leadership and the tremendous work he has done to the benefit of New Zealand’s vulnerable people and taxpayers.
If you have 10 minutes, please click on the link below and take a look at the Stakeholder Update presentation and notes we published on our website last week. If you like what you see, please feel free to share the link with your associates. My agenda is simple – I’d like all Kiwi’s to reconsider their perceptions of Kāinga Ora, and give the organisation and its people the benefit of the doubt a bit more in future and some positive feedback when it’s due.
Regards
Simon Moutter
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
5 comments:
Thanks for sharing that. It's important to hear good news stories and give credit where it is due. Would we see this in the MSM? It's actually really important, especially the last sentence about perceptions. I had decided they were beyond redemption. MC
Should be Item 2 on the agenda of the first cabinet meeting of 2026.
And yet still no name change to something everyone can understand.
Thank you David - and for all your good reporting. You are a national treasure - Happy new year!!
Thanks David.
I contribute to this site regularly. I love the interesting views and news that get reported here that will never make it to the msm.
David, your article is particular interesting to me and has raised many emotions and thoughts after reading it.
David - Here is my letter back to Simon Moutter.
Dear Simon. I own a small business that had a contract with HNZ (Housing NZ). While the money was not great nor the contract conditions, (if the job failed - I had to keep going back at my cost) when a lot of the issues were always down to the tenants and their behaviours - I decided to keep this contract as it was my way to give back to NZ and help some of my fellow kiwis out who perhaps just needed a bit of help.
I had to fill out a lot of paperwork, have myself and team police checked to ensure that we were fit and proper people to enter these houses. I had to go through endless inductions and 'best practice' procedures. Yet I still persisted.
Then things changed a few years back. I was regularly abused and threatened to be killed. (Remember - I'm helping these guys out...you called me!) I dreaded going to these places and despite reporting these instances to police, the police advised it was a HNZ issue. HNZ were never interested and always fobbed me off. There were 2 instances that I actually thought this was my last day on this earth. I vowed never to go back to these houses.
When my annual meeting with the HNZ person (some regional or ops manager or similar) was scheduled - to get my new keys, badge and id card I discussed some other undesirable behaviours that was occuring - I was sure HNZ would want to know about. Her response - "you can report it, but we will not guarentee your safety"! That sums up the attitude of HNZ! Naturally I never reported anything!
Still I persisted.....until one day I received a letter from the Ardern govt HNZ team. The letter mentioned that they had me down as a european and that I needed to respond if I wasnt or if I was maori as part of the Ardern govt they wanted to make sure that 20% of HNZ business was maori (or something along those lines).
That was the final straw for me. Arderns HNZ team allowed the abuse, encouraged the poor behaviours that occured in taxpayer funded housing, and actually even endorsed these behaviours and abuse - but then to send me a letter trying to take my business away from me due to me being a european....tells you everything you need to know about the Ardern led govt and Ardern herself.
I did the numbers. I could survive...I let go of HNZ. The relief of getting rid of the this contract was the best move I have ever made.
The silver lining was I looked at my business and now have customers who say 'thank you' and ask - 'are you sure we are paying you enough' - as opposed to wanting/trying to kill me. Tell me readers - which customer would you prefer to have?
If I could change one thing - it would be that Ardern and her team reap the consequences of the destruction she allowed upon this country. She should be the recipient of the behaviours I experienced under her 'no consequences', race based policies. I'm pretty sure they would make different decisions and behave differently if they were the recipient of such behaviours, just like those of us 'at the coal face' experience. Instead shes off promoting her new taxpayer funded movie! Go figure.
I understand that things have improved under the new coalition....well they couldnt get any worse could they? There are now consequences for poor behaviour - as there should be.
Simon a final thought - do not let any of the above happen on your watch. You are a good decent person do not lower yourself down to the previous govts levels. Do the right thing morally and ethically. Keep your head high.
I hope Simon continues to mop up the mess Ardern left (trust me, it's a huge mess) and strive to lift the country and it's citizens up, not drag everyone down (as per Ardern and co.)
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