11. Question No. 11—HousingTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 11—HousingTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. To the Minister of Housing—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Just wait a minute.11. TAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central) to the Minister of Housing: Does he stand by his statement that Our collective failure to build enough houses has trapped people in poverty it has increased inequality it has made us poorer rather than wealthier" and if so will he commit to delivering enough new public homes through Kāinga Ora to clear the wait-list?Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Minister of Housing): To the first part of the question: yes I agree with my statement. To the second part of the question: no decisions have been made around that. We have Kāinga Ora under review right now. The question also assumes that the way to clear the social housing wait-list—which I note went up 500 percent in the last six years—is to build Kāinga Ora public homes. That is not the case. We need to think about how we can grow the community housing sector and also we need to think about how we get rent affordability better under control because the ultimate driver of how people end up on the wait-list is when they can't afford the private rental market. So we reject the assumption that the only way to house people in need is to build more public homes. Actually we need more houses across the supply continuum from market housing to affordable rentals through to Kāinga Ora but also the community housing sector. [Interruption]SPEAKER: Just wait. It's your own member who's just trying to ask a question.Tamatha Paul: What advice if any has he received on the impact of increased public housing supply on overall housing supply and affordability?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well building more public housing obviously increases the supply of houses—that is self-evident. So in the sense that I have received advice around that self-evident proposition I have received that. But as the member knows we have a comprehensive programme of work under way across the drivers of housing supply going out at the edge of our cities and going up sorting out the infrastructure funding and financing constraints and making sure we incentivise councils to believe in housing growth. We've also got a programme of work around improvements to the rental market to make sure that we get more landlords entering the market to put downward pressure on rents. And we have a whole programme of work which I'm leading with Minister Potaka around social housing and of course sorting out the squalid mess that is emergency housing.Tamatha Paul: What advice if any has he seen on how a net decrease of public housing places over the past 40 years has impacted rental affordability at the same time as total households renting have more than doubled?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: OK well there's quite a lot in that question. It is true that a failure to build enough houses has ultimately made rents more unaffordable—that is why our failure to build enough houses over the last six years saw rents increase by $170 per week under the previous Government. The ultimate answer to New Zealand's housing challenges are to build more houses. The way to do that is to free up land inside our cities; make sure councils zone enough land; we create abundant development opportunities and make sure that we build the infrastructure and we have a resource management system that facilitates the building of the infrastructure so that we build more houses both at a private market level—because that is the ultimate way we get rent under control—but also as part of that we build more social houses. The Government has a role to play in that but also the community housing sector has a very important role to play in that as well. We are far more about supporting the community housing sector on this side of the House than members opposite in the past who think that Kāinga Ora is the answer to everything. Actually it isn't.SPEAKER: Just—answers are answers and they should be as concise as possible. That was an interesting contribution to the House.Tamatha Paul: Does he accept the findings of the Growing Up in New Zealand study that housing stability is critical for young people and if so what is he doing to maintain housing stability for young people in public housing?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Absolutely which is why I gave a speech two or three weeks ago talking about the failure of Governments in the past to fundamentally sort out the land supply restrictions that have held New Zealand back from growing housing. We have a comprehensive programme of work in conjunction with our New Zealand First coalition partners where we're committed to making it easier to build 60-square-metre granny flats on land; and alongside our coalition partners in the ACT Party making the Medium Density Residential Standards optional but at the same time making sure we explore the idea of GST-sharing with councils to make sure that councils go for housing growth. The ultimate answer to all of these problems is to build a bucketload more houses than we've done in the past and we're committed to doing that.Ricardo Menéndez March: Point of order. Thank you Mr Speaker. That was all well and fine but that that didn't address the question which was around stability in public housing. [Interruption]SPEAKER: Wait on. Wait. Sorry just calm down.Ricardo Menéndez March: Like genuinely just raising that point.SPEAKER: Start again.Ricardo Menéndez March: Thank you. That was all well and fine but it did not address—SPEAKER: And the House will listen to a point of order in silence.Ricardo Menéndez March: That did not address the question which is around housing stability of young people in public housing—SPEAKER: Speak up I can't hear you.Ricardo Menéndez March: It didn't address the question which was around stability for people in public housing. The Minister talked about land supply and addressed a range of issues but none of which actually—SPEAKER: I'm sorry I disagree with you. I think the Minister has made it very clear that his answer to almost any question around housing for any sector of society is housing supply and I think that it does well and truly address the question.Tamatha Paul: Will he ensure that demand for housing from the wait-list is met by building new homes rather than by evicting families already in public housing?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well the demand for public housing places—as I said in the answer to the primary question—will be met from a variety of sources. One way to cope with the demand on the wait-list is to build Kāinga Ora houses—that is true. Another way is to facilitate the building of the community housing sector so that people go into social houses. Another way is to make sure that people don't end up on the wait-list in the first place and the way to drive that is to make rents more affordable. People end up on the wait-list because they can't afford the private rental market. So as I said in answer to the primary question we reject the idea that the way to solve social housing is just to build more public housing. Actually that has a role to play but going for housing growth across the supply continuum is extremely important and that's what we're committed to."