Twyford PhilKĀINGA ORA—HOMES AND COMMUNITIES BILLThird ReadingHon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister for Urban Development): I move That the Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill be now read a third time. This Government believes that every New Zealander should have a warm dry and secure home. This bill is about delivering on that commitment.This Government believes in the importance of public and affordable housing—places where generations of young families have had a start in life and the chance to put down roots in their communities. This bill puts public and affordable housing at the heart of our agenda.This Government believes in rolling up our sleeves and tackling the long-term problems facing the country in working with the private sector and community organisations to fix problems that have accumulated over many years and were ignored for far too long. This bill is an expression of that commitment.This Government believes that we need to plan in order to succeed and that's why this bill creates a Government policy statement on housing and urban development. For the first time we will have a strategic direction and an overarching plan for housing and set out expectations and priorities for the whole sector from local authorities to community housing providers the private sector Kāinga Ora itself and iwi.This Government believes in being a fair and reasonable landlord and treating people with respect integrity and honesty and that the Government should support people to lead lives of dignity to be well connected to their communities and sustain their tenancies. This bill legislates for that vision.Under this Government Housing New Zealand changed their role and the way they work. We've called time on an attitude of doing as little as possible of extracting greater and greater dividends and of treating State housing as if it were a commercial property management business. This bill reflects that change. We are repealing the presumption that Housing New Zealand now Kāinga Ora will pay a dividend and we are legislating new operating principles that reflect the importance of State housing for people's wellbeing.Now Housing New Zealand is focusing on ensuring tenants have stable housing that will enable better life outcomes and healthier communities. The new Greys Ave redevelopment in Auckland is an exemplar of this vision. At Greys Ave we're building a purpose-built complex designed to best help tenants with wraparound health addiction and employment and skills support. This bill implements those changes.This Government believes the State should provide good quality warm dry and healthy rental housing. This bill reconfirms that commitment and repeals the ability for the Government to sell off State homes. Instead Housing New Zealand is investing more than ever before in building new homes and renovating existing homes so that they are warm dry and healthy. Kāinga Ora will inherit a redevelopment programme that will see 75 percent of their 64000 properties upgraded over the next 20 years with thousands of State and affordable homes being built alongside that process. I am personally proud of the work this Government has done over the last two years to reposition public and affordable housing in New Zealand. This work is embodied in that bill.I want to speak further about Government as an enabler of development and the reshaping of our towns and cities; partnering with the private sector with local government and iwi to build. Now I know there were concerns raised at the Environment Committee about the Government crowding out community housing providers in the private sector. Rather than crowding out or replacing the private sector my message to developers is that we want you to grow we want you to build more and we understand the constraints on you right now. This bill is about working together to overcome those constraints and helping the private sector to build more and do more.Kāinga Ora will enable the private sector to get on and build. For a start it will enable the Government to move to long-term agreements with builders where we contract a large number of homes a year across the full Government build programme giving builders certainty and scale so that they can reduce costs invest in off-site manufacturing train staff and build faster. It will also enable us to reduce complexity and to simplify processes. It simply makes no sense for builders to go through separate procurement processes with KiwiBuild HLC and Housing New Zealand—as they've been doing—each with different requirements documents and criteria. This is exactly what the construction industry has told us they need.Kāinga Ora is set up so that it can be a joint-venture vehicle for Government to work alongside large developers iwi and local government so that they too can benefit from the tool box of development powers that will follow in the urban development bill—shortly to be tabled in the House—while making sure that those powers are exercised appropriately and in an accountable way. Our country is going through an historic shift in how we approach housing and urban development.Currently our cities and towns are facing unprecedented pressure from strong population growth changing demographics and preferences and an ageing population. There is a terrible shortage not only of homes but of the kinds of homes that people need and can afford. Traditionally in New Zealand really for the last century our cities have developed by turning neighbouring countryside into suburban streets and homes. This is still important. However we know that we also need to intensify our urban development.The problem is that second-generation growth in our cities is often too complex for the private sector to do on its own. Such projects require a lot of work on network infrastructure fragmented land titles balancing different interests and creating high urban design standards. Often all of that together creates too much risk and uncertainty for the private sector to do on its own. We need to change the ways that we develop our urban communities so that they can thrive and that everyone can have a place to call home.We want our cities to be well designed people-focused and ready for the future and Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities will need to be at the forefront of innovation in urban development building and construction and exploring new technologies and methods as they emerge. It will act as a catalyst for the private sector also to be more responsive integrated and innovative in its thinking. This bill makes the Government an enabler of this vision and in this regard passing this bill into law today represents a step change rather than a continuation of business as usual. Finally I want to finish where I began. Every New Zealander should have a warm dry and secure home. They should be treated with respect and dignity. This requires all of us to ensure that New Zealanders are supported. We know that it's easier for people to address their health or employment issues once they have a secure home. When the Prime Minister announced the new Housing First programme in May being rolled out to a number of centres she shared a part of a letter written by a Hamilton man called Mohi who has been homeless for 18 years until he was helped by Housing First.Mohi is deaf in one ear and has suffered a brain injury. And he wrote to the Prime Minister My first-ever meeting with you I hadn't heard of you and so I didn't know what you were about or what to expect. And what I got … was 'come hold our hand we are going to take you through this process. It will take a wee while you just have to persevere and we will catch you if you start to fall.' " Mohi's letter goes on to describe what it felt like moving into his own home. He was so overwhelmed he said that he cried and cried and cried. He wrote "I used to think you have got to help yourself because no-one else will but I was wrong there are angels … in Hamilton … who believe in me and who've helped me believe in myself so that I can persevere. I took their hand held on to it tightly and didn't fall over."This bill is another step in ensuring that we as a Parliament support people like Mohi that we ensure there are enough homes that are affordable and secure that we work with him to sustain that tenancy and that we make sure he is able to live a life of dignity to be a full and active part of the community. Those are the principles we are legislating today for Kāinga Ora. In conclusion I reiterate my thanks to members of the committee submitters and officials for their contribution to this bill. It is a key milestone in modernising how we approach housing and the development of our communities in New Zealand. I commend this bill to the House."