8. Question No. 8—HousingHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 8—Housing8. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing: Is this Government acting with urgency to address housing issues; if so is she aware today is the six-month anniversary of the announcement of a KiwiBuild recalibration that would take a few weeks?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): In answer to the first part of the question yes. Since taking office this Government has announced a wide range of practical ways to tackle the housing crisis and help more New Zealanders into homes. We've stopped National's sell-off of State houses and we've started adding more public housing places. In the 12 months to June we've added 1600 new public houses. We've banned non-resident speculators we're tackling homelessness by allocating around $500 million in the Wellbeing Budget we've banned letting fees and we're modernising residential tenancy laws to make life better for renters. We've passed a healthy homes guarantee for warm dry healthy homes we're providing insulation and heating grants to low-income homeowners and just last week Minister Parker announced the process for amending the Resource Management Act (RMA). In answer to the second part of the question yes but as I already explained we do not consider that the KiwiBuild element of our housing policy has been delivering the way we wanted. We are currently resetting the policy and as I told the member in the House last week I'll be taking a paper through the Cabinet process later next month. Hon Judith Collins: Why has this Government gone more than halfway through its term without having finalised its housing policy? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: We are determined to get this right. This is too important. What I would like to point out to that member opposite is that she should know that. She was a member of a Government that promised 39000 houses through the special housing areas but delivered only 3157 houses—100 of which were affordable. On 21 August 2007 John Key announced an affordability crisis. It took until September 2014—Hon Grant Robertson: Seven years. Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: —for that party in Government to do anything; seven long years. So I stand by the 642 days since we took office stacked up against the 2130 days it took for that party in Government to do anything about housing. Hon Judith Collins: When she says that the previous Government did nothing for first-home buyers does she realise that under the previous Government first-home buyers as a percentage of the market increased from 18 percent in 2014 to 22 percent just before the last election? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: What I would remind that member of is the fact that we still do have a shortage of houses in this country. That party did not solve it. We are not pretending that we have solved it. We know there is more work to be done and there are too many people that are shut out of the housing market. That member might be satisfied that their intervention with the special housing areas not only delivered 10 percent of the properties they said they would but only 100 of them were classed as affordable. We don't think that is good enough and we are determined to do better.Hon Judith Collins: If this Government's done so much and the previous so little then why are more people homeless this winter than they were two winters ago? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I think that member should look behind her at the colleague she has sitting there. We had nine years of inaction and a Government that took five years to get the first houses under way and allowed a housing crisis to develop. We have inherited an issue where we have a shortage of houses and we are determined to address that. I think that party should admit they didn't do well. We are willing to admit that we didn't get the KiwiBuild element of our policy right in our first few months and we're willing to address that but the difference is we're determined to keep trying on behalf of New Zealanders.Hon Judith Collins: Is the Government acting with urgency on housing when after 20 months—and now an acknowledgment that planning and the RMA need to be overhauled—the only action so far has been to announce a review? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I'd like to remind that member of the answer to my primary question—of all the urgent action we have taken on housing and the suite of policies that we have introduced from stopping the sell-off of State housing under that Government through to the fact that actually we have got an RMA process under way. That is something I would note that that member's party when they were in Government failed to get over the line in the nine years they were in Government and in fact their leader Simon Bridges has said it's one of the things they failed on.