Parmar Parmjeet: Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParmar Parmjeet: Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 18 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5915. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill in its first reading. It is a pleasure to take this call in support of this bill. The social housing reforms are important and they are well on track. Our social housing reforms are about recognising and understanding families in need. Our focus is on making sure that people who need social housing get that at the right time and also for the right amount of time. People have different kinds of needs. Some people need long-term State housing while others are able to move on to private rentals as their circumstances change. So this is about privatising social housing for people in the greatest need and also providing opportunity for people who can move on to private rentals.This Government is keen to work with different organisations to encourage community housing and that is what this bill is about. This bill is to support the Social Housing Reform Programme by amending the Housing Corporation Act 1974 to provide designated Ministers with the authority to transfer Housing New Zealand Corporation properties. Ministers will be able to do that by getting into contracts in the name of Housing New Zealand. This bill will also help Ministers to make sure that Housing New Zealand looks after tenants in those properties that are being transferred. So those tenants are the focus of this bill. The Social Housing Reform Programme is to provide more social houses through Housing New Zealand and also through community housing providers. This involves the transfer of houses from Housing New Zealand to community housing providers. The initial proposal is to transfer 1000 to 2000 houses from Housing New Zealand to community housing providers.This National Government cares about people. We care about families. This National Government is committed to looking after people—those who need social housing. This National Government is committed to providing income-related rental subsidies for more households. Currently there are 62000 households around New Zealand receiving taxpayer-supported income-related rental subsidies. This National Government has committed to increasing that by 3000 households by 2017-18.We need these reforms; that is why we need this bill. It is important because there are around 3600 people assessed as having a high need. They are on the waiting list of the social housing register—yes 3600 people are on the waiting list. There are around 1300 Housing New Zealand tenants who have applied for a transfer. This is a very challenging situation because one-third of the $18.7 billion Housing New Zealand portfolio is in the wrong place or is of the wrong type. For example 30 percent of people on the waiting list want to get into a one-bedroom house. But if we look at our stock only 9 percent of the houses that we have are one-bedroom houses. Also people’s needs change with time and their needs are not just about housing itself so it is important to look at other kinds of arrangements.This Government has already taken a number of steps to improve the supply of social housing. If you go back to 2010 after a report from the Housing Shareholders’ Advisory Group the Government’s programme has so far included setting up the Social Housing Unit in 2011.This was recommended by that advisory group and this was to help grow a community housing sector and also then changing the law in 2013 was to open social housing to approved non-Government providers so that they could receive the same subsidies as Housing New Zealand. During the 2014 election campaign the Prime Minister confirmed that we will be moving away from Housing New Zealand’s monopoly to a range of social housing providers.Our goal is to have a strong social housing system that people can access and that provides for people’s needs. We want to make sure that people are able to get into social housing when they need to. We also want to make sure that those houses are of the right size that they are of the right configuration that they are of good quality and that they are in the right kind of area. The Government will continue to be the largest owner of social houses and it will further increase subsidies for New Zealanders in housing need. Over the next few years the Government wants to see that Housing New Zealand and community housing providers collectively are able to provide more social houses than we have now.As I said Housing New Zealand will continue to be by far the largest owner of subsidised houses and we will ensure that in 2017 it provides at least 60000 properties which is down from 68000. This is taking into consideration various community housing providers coming on board.I heard the previous speaker Su’a William Sio and just to clarify tenants in properties that will be sold will continue to stay in those properties. They will stay in those properties for the duration of their need. The Government will spend more on income-related rent subsidies and ensure that Housing New Zealand has enough capital to redevelop and look after those properties. This bill is not about selling State houses—just to explain to the Opposition. Yes it is not about selling State houses. It is about better meeting the needs of tenants by supporting the growth of the community housing sector and ensuring that there are more social houses available for people who need them. As I said before the Government will be providing income-related rental subsidies for another 3000 houses by 2017-18 taking that number from 62000 houses to 65000. The Government is committed to both supporting a stronger community housing sector and also investing significantly in Housing New Zealand properties and to providing $1.9 billion per year in accommodation support.Our focus is on families not on the number of houses owned by the Government. We know that tenants’ needs can be better met through innovation through diversity and through providing choice and that is why we need to involve community housing providers. Community housing providers can provide a wraparound support to those people who need social services so that they do not have to go to multiple agencies and explain their circumstances. So it makes it really easy for people.I also heard Su’a William Sio the member speaking before me saying that these houses will be sold in Australia. These houses will be sold to organisations that are willing to register with us as community housing providers which means that they will have to meet some strict standards. There are standards that they will have to meet and only then can they buy these houses. So there are strict criteria for them to buy these houses. Properties sold as social houses will continue to remain as social houses unless the Government agrees otherwise. In most cases when these houses are transferred there will be tenants in them. They will be looked after. So this bill is about making sure that Housing New Zealand looks after those people during that transfer process and if there is any redevelopment of those houses it will make sure that those people are provided with proper accommodation as per their needs.People have complex needs and to provide for those complex needs the Government needs to work with different parties—non-government organisations and community-based organisations—and that is what we are doing. So I support this bill and commend it to the House. Thank you.