David Farrar: Does the state need to own houses to help families?

A good report from the NZ Initiative that looks at whether ownership of state houses is the best way to help low income NZ families with housing. Some key extracts:

Kerre Woodham: State houses are a launchpad, not a permanent solution

Fewer state houses, more private rentals. The New Zealand Initiative believes that giving tenants vouchers to spend on rent could help more vulnerable people and save taxpayers money.

And Sir Bill English agrees. In a rare interview on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, the former Prime Minister says providing state housing is not just about putting a roof over the head of a vulnerable family.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 31/7/23

Robertson congratulates the Black Ferns, Mahuta will watch the Silver Ferns – but does govt support help a team’s chances?

How our money is being spent – and misspent – is among the burning questions which Point of Order strives to answer by monitoring the government’s official website.

Today we can record a few projects proudly announced by ministers – but we can’t always tell readers how much is being spent because the ministers haven’t bothered including that information in their press statements.

Another question we like to ask relates to the whereabouts of our busy ministers – and their sporting interests.

Point of Order: The govt knocks down old state houses and builds new ones – but the net result is a waiting list that cries out for demolition

It was a simple question about housing and Point of Order listened closely to Housing Minister Megan Woods’ response.

Alas, we are none the wiser on one part of the question, about advice on how long it will take to get the waiting list down to around 5844. But – if we have done our sums correctly – we can tell readers there has been a hefty increase in the numbers of people on the state housing waiting list over the past five years.

We took a crack at working this out after Parliamentary questions were put by National MP Chris Bishop to the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing), who presumably was not in Parliament at the time. Megan Woods did the answering.

Bishop asked:

Lindsay Mitchell: Why the ideological attachment to state housing?

The latest MSD report measuring material hardship shows that among children aged 0-17 those in social housing have much higher hardship rates.

Mike Butler: Tribes first up for social housing

New tribal corporations appear to have the first right of refusal for all state houses the Government plans to sell because such rights to surplus Crown properties have existed in treaty settlements back to the Waikato-Tainui deal in 1995.

Housing was the main subject of Prime Minister John Key’s state of the nation speech last week. A proposal to sell between 1000 and 2000 Housing New Zealand properties over the following year for use as social housing run by approved community housing providers was the standout among five proposals that included: