Twyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 06 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:695. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū)to the Minister for Building and Housing: Does he stand by his statement on the National Construction Pipeline report on residential construction that “in Auckland it equates to about 30000 houses over the course of the three years”?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister)on behalf of theMinister for Building and Housing: Yes and I presume the member is going to compare it with the target set for the Auckland Housing Accord which was 39000 sections. One is a measure of sections; the other is a measure of houses built.Phil Twyford: Is the reason the National Construction Pipeline report boosts the value of residential construction by a factor of 1.82—and he is reduced to counting empty sections to meet his Auckland Housing Accord targets—that he is so depressed at the failure to achieve a housing boom that he feels he has to artificially inflate the numbers?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well the member is completely wrong about that. In fact the Auckland Council report itself shows that we are in for the most sustained construction activity for 40 years. That is the longest period of the highest rates of growth in construction and that is because we have to catch up from all the damage done under the previous Labour Government where housing consenting slowed right down in Auckland and that is what has forced up rents and house prices.Phil Twyford: How does he explain that Labour consented over 30000 houses a year a decade ago under the same regulatory settings that he now blames for the collapse of his own 6-year housing programme which consented only 7300 houses in Auckland last year—4 years after he declared that the recession was over?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The member is talking nonsense. The Government set out to undo the problem created by Auckland Council limiting the amount of land available for new growth not for previous growth. The impact of that member’s policies is that almost no lower-value housing was consented in Auckland up until a couple of years ago. That is the real problem we need to fix—that is the access of lower-income New Zealanders to housing they can afford in New Zealand’s biggest city.Phil Twyford: Is he aware that the head of Auckland Council’s housing project office confirmed this week that only five houses have been completed under his accord and only 18 are expected by the end of the year; and is he proud of this spectacular achievement when people are living in cars and garages and caravans in Auckland?Mr SPEAKER: The Hon Bill English—either of those two supplementary questions.Hon BILL ENGLISH: We are aware of the report of the Auckland Council on where the pipeline is up to bearing in mind special housing areas were put in place by agreement with the Auckland Council so we could not go faster than the Auckland Council—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am sorry to interrupt the member but the level of barracking coming from the member who is asking the questions is unacceptable. I ask the Minister to resume.Hon BILL ENGLISH: The combined efforts of the Government and the Auckland Council in dealing with the very tricky planning environment are that we are heading into the most sustained period of growth in house building that New Zealand has seen in 40 years. That will be of great assistance to New Zealanders who have found that under the previous Labour Government house prices doubled their debt went way up and interest rates reached 10 percent. That certainly will not be happening on our watch.Phil Twyford: Has he considered approaching TV3’s The Block NZ for help to fix the Auckland housing crisis given that they have built and completed more houses in two seasons than he has built in 1 year of his housing accords?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The houses are more than a million dollars apiece and I know that is the bit of the market that Labour is interested in but we are interested in what normal households can afford. Secondly they were built on land that had already been made available. We had to actually make 39000 sections available that did not previously exist. We are very proud of the fact that in the next 5 or 6 years tens of thousands of new houses will be built in New Zealand that would not otherwise have occurred.