Twyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 10 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:7795. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Building and Housing: Does he agree with the New Zealand Herald that it is no surprise his Auckland housing accord has been a flop?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Housing): No I do not agree with that editorial. But I do agree with the editorial in the Dominion Post today describing Labour as a corpse and a policy desert and a little party lacking leadership or any new—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Phil Twyford: How many houses have been built in his special housing areas in the 2 years since his housing accord was signed?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: There have been 8700 homes consented in Auckland over the last year. There have been 2049 consents—Phil Twyford: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question was very explicitly—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I agree with that. I am hoping it will be answered. Let us wait for the end of the answer and then we will make a decision. Does the Minister wish to add to his answer?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: There have been 2049 building and resource consents issued in those special housing areas. We will not have accurate data on the number of houses completed because that is only collected through the census.Phil Twyford: Does he agree with the New Zealand Herald which said that at least 25000 new houses should be built or nearing completion by now if his 3-year target is to be met and that the tally of 102 houses completed and known to the council is “pitiful”?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The number of 102 is a nonsense. It counts houses in only two of 97 special housing areas and even there that is not correct. What is more the housing accord always said that it counted consents over all of Auckland. That number is currently standing at 19921 and is 1000 ahead of the same time the accord projected.Joanne Hayes: Why does the Minister have confidence that the building consent data can be relied upon as an accurate measure of how many houses are actually built?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The reason I have confidence that the building consent data is reliable is that it almost perfectly matches the census data on the number of new houses. For instance between 2006 and 2013 32600 homes were consented in Auckland and the census showed that over the same period there were 33000 new homes. If we compare all of the census data since 1991 the correlation between consents and new homes is better than 98 percent. Furthermore it makes common sense. Who is going to spend $15000 on getting a building consent if they do not actually intend to get on and build a house within the 12-month period that the consent is valid?Phil Twyford: Why does he continually boast that the consenting rate on his watch is better than it was in the depths of the global financial crisis when the industry all but collapsed and why does he not admit that the current consenting rate means that the shortfall of houses built up under this Government is getting bigger by 4500 every year?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The number of consents issued in Auckland in the 2008-09 year was 3400. The number of consents that have been issued in the last year is 8700. That shows you the phenomenal growth that has occurred since the disaster that the previous Government left.Phil Twyford: How humiliating was it to have his finance Minister say that the Auckland housing market is “a major risk to the economy?” after 7 years in Government and nearly 3 years while he has been Minister and is that not an admission that his housing policy has been a total failure?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Over the years that I have been Minister the rate of house build growth in Auckland is faster than at any period in Auckland’s history. It is true that the challenges go on for this reason: during the previous Government we had 40000 Kiwis leaving for Australia each year. They are not leaving they are coming home and that is putting more pressure on the housing market and that is why we need to keep the foot on the accelerator.Joanne Hayes: What consideration has the Minister given to the proposal of the infrastructure for new housing being funded by council debt and repaid by way of specially targeted rates on new housing development rather than the infrastructure costs being included in the price of a section?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Such an approach is just creative accounting and will make no real difference to the affordability of housing. It just transfers the cost from the homeowner’s mortgage to the homeowner’s rates bill. For instance if the infrastructure cost is $30000 that would mean that they would pay $1500 less in their mortgage but they would pay $1500 a year more in terms of the specially targeted rate. Claims that such an approach is groundbreaking and would reduce new housing costs are nothing more than fool’s gold.