5. Question No. 5—HousingPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 5—Housing5. PAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai) to the Minister of Housing: What progress has the Government made in rebuilding public housing in New Zealand?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): I'm pleased to report that the Government has added more than 13000 new public homes since October 2017. Of the 13305 homes 11285 of these are new builds. In June 2023 alone 1107 public homes were added to the national stock. This is the highest monthly delivery of public homes by Kāinga Ora ever. To put our public house building programme in perspective one in seven homes has been added by this Government in the last five years. I am proud to be part of a Government that is delivering the biggest public housing build programme per year since the 1950s. Paul Eagle: How has delivery improved in the regions?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Yesterday I had the pleasure of being in Masterton to welcome the return of new Government-owned public homes in the area for the first time in two decades. Along with the 21 Masterton homes and two new homes in Dannevirke the developments represent the first step in a commitment to delivering a larger pipeline of housing projects in the region with at least 80 new homes in the construction planning or feasibility stages. This Government has added almost 300 public homes across Northland since October 2017. This stands in stark contrast to the National Party who in the nine years in Government reduced the number of public homes in Northland by 93. In Kerikeri a community housing provider's build-to-own development for 10 public housing places was completed in March this year. The homes in the area are in high demand and are managed by Habitat for Humanity Northland Region.SPEAKER: Number one. First of all that answer was far too long. It's been a long time in this House that using a supplementary question from the Government to the Government to attack the Opposition is out of order. I will give the Opposition spokesperson two questions if he wishes to use them.Chris Bishop: Can she confirm that after six years the Government's housing record stands at rents up $170 per week a quadrupling in the State house waiting list thousands of families living in motels and hundreds living in cars?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: What I can confirm is this is a Government that has admitted there is a housing crisis and has a plan to address it. That does stand in stark contrast to nine years under a previous National Government; that even when you accounted for the transfer of community housing providers (CHPs) they ended up with 1500 fewer public houses than they started with. Not only did they flog off our houses but they also failed to build them. We would have over 20000 more public houses in New Zealand today if we didn't have a National Government between 2008 and 2017 who had a dereliction of duty when it came to housing; that would account to 85 percent of the waiting list.Chris Bishop: How many of the promised 100000 KiwiBuild houses have been built?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: As the member well knows there has been a reset of KiwiBuild but what I can tell that member is vastly more than the less than 100 affordable homes that the previous National Government managed under their housing areas when they were in Government. It's time for the National Party to start putting up some policies that are actually going to address a housing crisis because we have not seen any. Paul Eagle: How is the Government working with community housing providers in its public housing programme?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The Government is committed to partnering with community housing providers to deliver our public house build programme. We are seeing growth in the CHP sector with the number of registered CHPs growing from 43 when we came into office to 74 providers today. Since October 2017 CHPs have supported the delivery of 7444 homes—1944 of these being new builds. We also have changed the funding settings for CHPs to support them to deliver new houses and focus on increasing supply in the regions through changes to the Operating Supplement cap and the introduction of early-stage operational funding.Paul Eagle: What more does the Government have planned for public housing?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: In Budget 2023 the Government announced an additional 3000 public homes by June 2025. These additional homes build on the 18000 homes we have committed to delivering by 2024. The updated public housing plan through to 2025 will have a focus on regional delivery as well as maintaining momentum of the current pipeline. At my request officials are developing bottom-up delivery plans working with community housing providers stress testing the supply pipeline and analysing existing demand data. Details of the plan will be released by early September.