Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 10 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6051. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
4.  
GEORGINA BEYER (NZ Labour—Wairarapa) 
 to the  
Minister of Housing 
: What initiatives is the Government taking to increase the supply of quality housing? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Housing) 
: 
 In the 2003 Budget an additional $260 million was invested in social housing. That included some $100 million to provide another 318 State houses over the next 4 years and to extend 80 homes to better suit large families. That is on top of nearly 3000 State houses currently under way or planned. In addition about $60 million over 4 years has been set aside to accelerate the modernisation of State housing. 
Georgina Beyer 
: What is being done to encourage social housing partnerships with non-governmental groups? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: In this year’s Budget $63 million was provided to encourage greater involvement in social housing by local government the community sector iwi and church groups. Local government and third sector groups with their strong community links are in an excellent position to provide local solutions to local problems. I look forward to working cooperatively with these sectors to ensure that funding makes the maximum possible impact on the housing situation. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: Can the Minister confirm that the waiting list for Housing New Zealand houses increased by 1500 to 11627 in the 15 months up to 31 March 2003 and does that not demonstrate the need to review the lifetime tenancies that currently exist or will he just keep on building new houses without ever investigating the need to sell some of the houses to long-term tenants? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I can confirm that there are more people seeking to get into State houses because of the income-related rents. I point out to the member of course that that relates to people who are in very urgent situations and to people who are not in situations like that at all. The situation would be a lot easier if 11500 houses had not been sold by the National Party. I say to the member that yes the Government is ensuring that people who do not need to be in a State house because their circumstances have changed are encouraged to move on to make room for others. 
Pita Paraone 
: Will those initiatives be further enhanced by the Government allowing existing State house tenants to buy their homes and the Government using the proceeds from those sales to build further State houses as some State houses are believed to be valued at in excess of $600000? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No. One of the problems that this Government faces is that the National Government sold 11500 of them. We have a large waiting list. While this year we will be experimenting with encouraging people into homeownership through the mortgage insurance scheme we are not selling houses at this time. 
Sue Bradford 
: Can the Minister give any indication of what percentage of the Budget allocation for third sector housing will actually go to not-for-profit or community-sector housing as opposed to local government housing and will groups like the Cooperative Housing Association of Aotearoa New Zealand be assisted further than they have been in the past in their bid to help with housing in very low socio-economic areas? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I would hope that about 50-50 of the new money that has been allocated would go between local government and third sector groups. In relation to specific organisations like the one the member mentioned I hope that they are able to work with us in a more relevant way for them and that they are able to build their houses but I could not guarantee an individual provider getting money at this time.