Twyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 12 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:11051. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Building and Housing: Does the Government plan to introduce new policies to reverse the decline in home ownership; if so how long will it take to reverse it?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Housing): Yes although homeownership has been in decline in every census since 1986 spanning a period of 30 years four Governments and 12 housing Ministers. The answer is in long-term evidence-based policy reform. Solutions include keeping interest rates low freeing-up land supply through Resource Management Act reform better city plans infrastructure investment building technology innovation and upskilling the sector. Our supply initiatives in Auckland took 3 years to the point where rents have now declined in the last year by 3 percent—when they were growing by over 20 percent. In Auckland as a larger market it will take longer.Phil Twyford: Has he sought $2 billion in the Budget for his surplus Crown land fund given that to secure the first 13 hectares of the 500 that he promised cost over $50 million and has yet to deliver any houses?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Yes I have sought funding in the Budget and it will be found out whether that has been successful—Grant Robertson: How much?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: —or not on Budget day. Only a few more sleeps Mr Robertson and Mr English will reveal all. In respect of the Crown land programme all of the funding that was provided in last year’s Budget will be extended for that programme and in the coming weeks I will be announcing the specific developments that will deliver the houses that are so crucial to the solution for Auckland.Phil Twyford: Will this Budget be announcing a replacement for his soon-to-expire special housing areas in Auckland which after 3 years have produced only 700 houses against a deficit that has built up on his watch of 40000 dwellings?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The member completely misses the fact that before you build a house you need a section. What we know from those special housing areas is that they are bringing tens of thousands of new sections on stream and that is one of the reasons why the house build rate in Auckland is progressing so quickly. In respect of his Budget question he will need to wait.Matt Doocey: How many houses were being built per month in Auckland when National came to office and how many are being builtnow?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Auckland was building 200 houses per month in late 2008—200 per month. We are not building 200 houses per month as under Labour but 800 per month currently. Residential investment in the last 12 months in Auckland was $4.2 billion. It has never before been over $4 billion. Only 4 years ago it was $1.5 billion. The Government initiatives to grow supply are bearing fruit and building activity in Auckland is booming.Phil Twyford: Will he be adopting a large-scale Government-backed - affordable homebuilding scheme in the Budget to deliver what New Zealand really needs—more affordable homes—instead of tinkering and fiddling with the building tariffs in the last Budget which according to his own officials has had zero impact on building costs?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The irony is this: if you take the KiwiBuild initiative that the member who raises the question put out and if you look at the schedule that he thought was the maximum growth rate that you could deliver in new houses the growth in new homes being built in Auckland is actually at twice the rate of what KiwiBuild was going to be able to provide—twice the rate—which shows that if you provide the incentives to the private sector it will get on and do the job. I am never of the view that the State building every house is the answer.Phil Twyford: Why should middle New Zealand have any confidence that the measures in this year’s Budget will be anything more than token given that all of his Budget housing initiatives so far have done nothing to stop the increase in house prices and have continued to back speculators at the expense of first-home buyers?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: What total rubbish. A simple initiative last year HomeStart saw 12000 Kiwi families first-home buyers all over New Zealand getting more support from the Government—[Interruption] Twelve thousand. It saw more of them getting support all over New Zealand as a consequence of the most generous support provided in a generation for first-home buyers. I challenge the member to look at Hobsonville a development on which not a single house was built during Labour’s 9 years. It turned the first sod—Phil Twyford: We started it.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Yeah you turned the first sod—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The answer is quite long enough.