Logie Jan; Woods MeganJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Chair. I rise to ask a few questions and I guess raise some concerns around the general state of accessible housing and where we're at as a country for planning for our ageing population. I want to start by acknowledging that within the annual review Kāinga Ora acknowledged that the public housing stock universal design target of 15 percent is a modest target that they would ideally like to exceed. I'm really pleased to hear that and I look forward to them exceeding that when they report for the first time next year. But I would like to hear from the Minister about when we might expect to see the target revised up beyond that. It feels like kind of a pitiful target—and I have heard one of the Ministers express that view as well—of just 15 percent. The reason this is so important is that one at the moment the assessment is that only about 2 to 3 percent of our housing in New Zealand is accessible and that 20 to 25 percent of the population identify as having disabilities. Not all of those people will need accommodations in their housing but we are also an ageing population and in the lifetime of the houses that are being built right at the moment the population of this country over 65 will probably double. Almost a quarter of our entire population will be over 65 within the lifespan of the houses that we are building now. And it's really important as we build inclusive communities that we think about the needs of everybody and how we futureproof our housing. It has been raised with me from the disability community that they are very keen to see this target put up—even as a starting point for the Labour Party manifesto target of 25 percent and to see that committed to.But they really don't see why all of our houses can't be built to universal design standards. I had a fantastic meeting with Lifemark recently up in Auckland and they were talking to me about how it used to be perceived that building to universal design was more expensive than a standard build. But actually what they're seeing now is that the cost of lifts has come down so significantly that actually really they are not at all convinced that the price of building is any more inaccessible—to be building to universal design. They do however recognise that there is a significant knowledge gap right across our building industry including within Kāinga Ora to understand what is universal design. They've seen plans for buildings that have beautiful wide doorways and flat floors and even a lift but there are steps into the house that make it inaccessible and kind of make all of that good work pointless. So they have a question about who will be overseeing and checking in terms of that delivery of the target for universal design. They want to see strong systems to ensure that we are building that capacity and ensuring that when we're delivering on this we are doing it well and also recognising that we've got 900 people on the social housing list that we know of who are needing accessible housing and that's a lot of people who at the moment are going to be waiting a long time when that's our target. That does not include people who are on good incomes but can't find an accessible house because they are not eligible to be on that waiting list. We've heard of people having to choose jobs that have showers at their workplace because they cannot find a house with a shower that they can access. So we need to make sure all of our housing stock is built to universal design and accessible and I'd love to hear from the Minister when are we going to make changes to the Building Act and to standard 4121 and whether the changes to the Resource Management Act are also going to take this opportunity to encourage universal design in our rebuild of this country. There's so much we can do and I'm looking forward to hearing that we're doing it.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): Thank you and I'm happy to take a call to talk about accessible housing. The questions about the changes to the Building Act will need to be put to the Minister for Building and Construction when she's not sitting in here in her capacity as the Associate Minister of Housing—that's something that comes under that portfolio. But I do have good news for the member. The target at the moment is 15 percent for Kāinga Ora for universal design or accessible. The reality is that just about all of the homes that are being built that are either on a ground floor or are lift-accessible are being built to universal or accessible design standards. I think it would be hard to imagine a person who is more passionate about accessible properties than the chair of Kāinga Ora Vui Mark Gosche and I just want to really acknowledge the leadership of Vui in this area and what an absolute passion it is for him—and what a lived passion for him these issues are.So what we are also looking at doing starting from the 2021-22 financial year in our financial reporting is reporting against those accessibility targets in a different way so that there is more transparency around it—sorry not the targets what the outcomes are so that there will be a change to our financial reporting which by necessity will answer some of the questions that the member put around the systems that will be needed to ensure that it is happening the monitoring all that kind of thing. Financial reporting and changes to that tend to kind of lead that kind of change. In terms of the comments that the member made about whether or not there was the capacity and knowledge within Kāinga Ora and within our build teams and our contract partners and our build partners to do that I'd like to reassure the member that there certainly is that capacity and that knowledge and that ability to do it. One of the things that we have been quietly getting on and doing is just upping the number of accessible universal design houses that we have been building but also building to Homestar 6 standards so that we're making sure we're building warm dry homes for people to live in. What we've been able to do is provide leadership in the construction industry because of the sheer number that we are building around waste reduction Homestar 6 building and because of the number that we're building we eventually managed to get the price down to actually about the same as it would cost to build just to the building code and the same is going for our universal design work.