3. Question No. 3—Housing and Urban DevelopmentMARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green) to the Minister of Housing and Urban DevelopmentQuestion No. 3—Housing and Urban Development3. MARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green) to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development: Is he confident current State housing targets are sufficient given the wait-list for State housing?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Thank you Mr Speaker. In 2013 Otago University estimated there were 41000 New Zealanders homeless and living in severe housing stress. We're dealing with the effects of a housing crisis and massive unmet need. Budget 2018 funded 6400 additional public homes over the next four years—an average of 1600 a year—and we're well on track to exceed this target in the first year. Since 1 November 2017 over 2000 more families are in public housing bringing us to the highest number of public housing tenancies since June 2009. I'm confident that our entire housing programme—including our public housing build—is ambitious that we're making progress and that it will continue to put more families off the State house waiting list into public housing. It will take time to fully ramp up but we are making very good progress.Marama Davidson: Does he agree that the proposed urban development and housing agency Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities should have a mandate to rebuild our public housing stock to meet projected future demand?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities the new urban development authority will be the home of State housing. It will manage the State house tenancies of which there are currently about 68000 and Housing New Zealand's development group will merge with HLC—the people who did Hobsonville Point—and KiwiBuild's procurement operation to manage the entire Government build programme including new State houses. As the member knows this Government is ambitious about building as many public homes as we can in the context of a broader housing programme focused on increasing affordability and improving the quality of homes.Marama Davidson: What work is under way to ensure new State houses are accessible to people with disabilities?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I've asked Housing New Zealand's board to review their whole approach to how well they serve their tenants who have disabilities. I think they're making great progress. The work is likely to include a commitment to a share of new State homes with universal design standards. Similarly with the massive retrofit programme that Housing New Zealand has under way there is an opportunity to make modifications for disability access at the same time as improving insulation putting in modern kitchens and heating.Marama Davidson: Does he intend to promote high standards of energy efficiency in the design and build of new public houses?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well Housing New Zealand are making great strides in improving the energy efficiency of their homes. They're currently spending $258 million bringing their homes up to the healthy homes standards. Housing New Zealand is also working towards Homestar 6 certification for its new builds. This would put it significantly ahead of much of the private residential construction market.