8. Question No. 8—HousingPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 8—Housing8. PAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai) to the Minister of Housing: What is the Government doing to boost the delivery of new public and transitional homes and why is this important as New Zealand emerges from the COVID-19 crisis? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): In Budget 2020 the Government announced funding for 8000 new public and transitional homes. This is a significant boost to the Government's existing public housing build programme of 6400 homes announced in Budget 2018. Kāinga Ora will finance its proportion of the additional 8000 homes by increasing its borrowing by approximately $5 billion. This major investment is an important signal to the residential construction sector that the Government is ramping up its commitment to public housing and the economic impact of the $5 billion investment in the residential construction market will be significant. Not only does this mean that 8000 more families will have warm dry homes to live in but it also means we'll be supporting thousands of jobs in the trades and wider construction sector to deliver these houses. With these latest announcements that brings the number of homes to 18350 either delivered by our Government or in the Government's public housing build pipeline—the most we've seen in decades. Paul Eagle: What progress is the Government making on its commitment to build 6400 public homes announced in Budget 2018? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: As at the end of March 2020 3749 public housing places or 59 percent have been delivered against the target of 6400 new public housing places by June 2022. In addition to funding for the latest 8000 houses Budget 2020 also included $100 million of funding to deliver 1650 extra places that have been delivered ahead of schedule over the last 2½ years. This is great news and demonstrates our Government's absolute commitment to building more public houses. I'm proud of our record to date and our plan for the future after a decade of the previous Government doing little more than selling off State houses. Rt Hon Winston Peters: Just to confirm Minister: does that mean that flogging off State houses everywhere and running down the Housing New Zealand stock has well and truly been stopped? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Yes it does but unfortunately we are left with a legacy of a waiting list of around 15000 people. But we are a Government with a plan to address that shortfall. Paul Eagle: What is the delivery time line for the additional 8000 new houses and where will they be located? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The 8000 houses will be delivered over the next four to five years. Approximately 6000 of these will be delivered in the two years following the completion of the existing 6400 houses in the delivery pipeline. The other 2000 houses will be delivered as transitional housing places over the next two years to enable the Government to reduce reliance on the use of motels as an emergency measure. In terms of where these houses will be located that will be determined as part of the public housing plan. I have asked officials to bring this work forward as a matter of priority and I expect it will be available in the coming months.