5. Question No. 5—HousingRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 5—Housing5. RACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson) to the Minister of Housing: What impact has the recent severe weather had on Kāinga Ora's work programme?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): Kāinga Ora estimates that at this stage approximately 850 new public homes that were expected to be delivered by June 2023 are now subject to an up-to-eight-week delay in their construction programme. Prior to the recent weather events Kāinga Ora was on track in January to meet the Government's ambitious public housing plan of delivering 3400 homes by June 2023. The delays have been caused by direct damage to our sites lost construction time in preparation and clean-up after the events as well as indirect consequential impacts on the supply chain and issues such as delays in inspections consentings and approvals. I'll continue to work with Kāinga Ora to actively manage delays and mitigate the impacts of Auckland's floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.Rachel Boyack: What construction sites were affected by the cyclone and flooding?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The weather events had a number of impacts on all construction sites including Kāinga Ora's. This included direct impacts on earthworks foundations materials water ingress and flooding. Work was paused across multiple sites during the cyclone with further time required afterwards to clean up the sites dry them out make them safe and remobilise before any work could be restarted. For example at the Greys Avenue sites—which will deliver approximately 200 units in Auckland—there was flooding in the basement and lift pits and damage to joinery stored in the basement. Given the joiners' factory was also flooded by the same weather event this has presented challenges with producing the replacement joinery. In Napier for example a construction site was directly impacted by limited road access and supply of materials to site causing disruptions.Rachel Boyack: What indirect impacts were felt by the cyclone and flooding?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: There have been indirect impacts on build partners and supply chains. For example labour and machinery were diverted to assist with emergency responses. Councils reprioritised staff and other regulatory building services to undertake emergency building assessments which had knock-on effects of delaying consenting inspections and approvals. Examples include Gisborne where eight projects were impacted by delays as contractors were unavailable to work on Kāinga Ora sites due to assisting with the emergency response. There were also shortages of water fuel and materials such as plasterboard and concrete.Rachel Boyack: Have the weather events impacted other parts of the country?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Other areas of New Zealand also experienced the diversion of materials and labour. For example some territorial authorities have diverted building inspection staff to affected areas including Wellington council staff sent to assist with Auckland. Major infrastructure providers also focused staff and machinery in priority areas. Civil contractors engineers machinery and materials have been mobilised from outside affected areas restricting resources in the rest of the country.