9. Question No. 9—HousingNICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 9—Housing9. NICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of Housing: Did she receive an aide-memoire dated 22 December 2020 from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development about potential impacts of changes to the treatment of rental properties; if so did that include advice that churn increases the risk that households may need to rely on transitional housing or emergency housing special needs grants or increase the numbers of the public housing register"?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): Yes and yes.Nicola Willis: Did she receive advice that the best way to minimise the impact of proposed tax changes on existing renters was to exclude existing rental properties from the policy and if so why didn't she take that advice?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The piece of advice that the member is referring to is a piece of advice that we received on 22 December right at the beginning of the journey of putting together our package. An aide-memoire that Ministers received on 15 January clearly stated that one of the things that we needed to do if we wanted to increase the supply of new housing and go some way to fixing the housing crisis was to indeed ring-fence out new builds to make sure that interest deductibility would still apply to new builds and that the brightline test would stay at five years for those properties. That is of course what we did.Nicola Willis: Why did she ignore the specific warning she received in this memo dated 11 February 2021 that including existing rental properties in her new tax policy would "directly impact on renters as they face either increased rent poorer quality housing or are forced to move out of their home"?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I also note that that piece of advice on 11 February said "We expect the brightline test extension will have a minimal impact on renters in the short term as the extension of the brightline test is proposed for prospective purchases only and has an exclusion for new builds. Existing property investors will not face additional costs on their properties." More advice concludes "Further those investors who still wish to grow their portfolios would be able to do so under the existing five-year brightline if they purchase new builds." In regard to interest deductibility we are a Government that is interested in putting in place levers to increase housing supply and that is what leaving interest deductibility on new builds achieves.Nicola Willis: Did she receive advice in a memo dated 11 February 2021 that if interest deductibility changes were phased in for existing housing stock that could not only directly impact on renters but could also increase "the accommodation supplement and homelessness with a resulting impact on the public housing wait-list"?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Ministers received a huge amount of advice as we were putting together this March package but as I have already indicated to that member what Ministers made very clear that this Government's priority was was putting in place measures that brought on new supply of housing. We have a housing crisis. We need new houses and housing supply is what is our priority and that is the advice that we were interested in.Nicola Willis: What steps has she taken to work directly with landlords to address New Zealand's housing shortage or is it her preference to simply scapegoat them for New Zealand's housing problems?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Our Government is taking multiple steps to work with landlords. One of the papers that will soon go out for consultation and we're very interested in hearing from landlords on is around interest deductibility and how that will apply to—leaving that in place for new builds. I want landlords to be part of solving the housing crisis in New Zealand and that means building more houses. I think we've found a good way to work with them on that."