5. Question No. 5—Housing and Urban DevelopmentHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban DevelopmentQuestion No. 5—Housing and Urban Development5. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development: How many KiwiBuild houses are either already completed or contracted and scheduled to be completed by 1 July 2019 and how many are already completed or contracted and scheduled to be completed by 1 October 2020?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Two hundred and sixty-six and 1535 by July 2020 hence the reset. Hon Judith Collins: Why did he announce within a month of becoming Minister that the Government would deliver 16000 houses before the next election?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well I think as the member knows we've made it very clear that we share everyone's disappointment with the disappointing numbers that KiwiBuild has achieved in the first year and half of the programme. We wished that those numbers were better and that's why we're doing the reset. We are committed to improving the KiwiBuild policy and we do not step away from our commitment to get more affordable homes built and to help young Kiwi families get into their own homes.Hon Judith Collins: Did Cabinet agree to the target of 1000 houses in the first year 5000 the next and 10000 the year after that?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Those targets were set in the very very early weeks of the Government and I'm pretty sure they were included in documents that were run by Cabinet and Cabinet has been seized of those numbers and the progress of the KiwiBuild programme all the way along.Paul Eagle: How many homes are under construction across the Government build programme including KiwiBuild?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: There are approximately 2500 State houses currently under construction as well as nearly 400 KiwiBuild homes under construction. Consent data shows that across the build programme Government agencies are now responsible for more new homes than at any time since the 1970s and we make no apology for backing builders to build affordable homes.Hon Judith Collins: Is he responsible for on the one hand suggesting the Government can deliver thousands of houses per year and on the other hand now only being in a position to deliver around 1500 during this term of Government?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well these policies like all policies of the Government are the collective responsibility of our Government but as Minister I take responsibility for the programme.Hon Judith Collins: Does he still say Some of these kids at Treasury are fresh out of university and they're completely disconnected from reality." as he did when they said that his targets weren't doable?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: They didn't actually say the targets weren't doable.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Has he received any reports or evidence on how the figures that he is using compare with the number of affordable homes built under the last Government?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Yes. I thank the member for that question and as I said before 1535 homes are contracted to be delivered by July 2020. By coincidence that happens to be the same number of homes that were not built under the former Government.Hon Judith Collins: How does his figure of around now 1500 homes built in this term of Government compare to the around 45200 homes built by the private sector in the last 18 months very similar to what they did in the 18 months before that?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Actually I think the member will find that under our Government and under our policies the private sector has been building more homes than at any time since 2007.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Nope—you're making that up.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: The key difference between then and now is that we're not privatising thousands of State houses; we're building thousands of new ones. We've increased the investment in tackling homelessness and we're building affordable houses.SPEAKER: Order! I just want to ask Mr Brownlee to reflect on Speakers' ruling 42/1 before he makes that interjection again. I think he has been warned on it before."