1. Housing Affordability and Availability—Hutt Valley DevelopmentANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterWEDNESDAY 5 JULY 2017Mr Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Prayers.ORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSHousing Affordability and Availability—Hutt Valley Development1. ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he have confidence in his Minister for Social Housing given that the Hutt housing development announced yesterday would include as few as 60 affordable homes out of the 330 to be built?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH (Prime Minister): Yes I do have confidence in our outstanding Minister for Social Housing. The member if he looked at the details of the announcement would see that Housing New Zealand will build at least 330 houses of which 130 will be social houses and 60 will be designated as affordable. But of course what matters in the Hutt Valley is the overall supply of housing to ensure that in the long run housing is affordable. The other thing that matters is that we now have the opportunity to rebuild the State housing stock in the Hutt Valley and clean up the mess left by the last Labour Government.Andrew Little: Why will up to 140 of the houses built in the Hutt development not be affordable by the Government's own definition given that the biggest crisis facing New Zealand is the lack of affordable housing?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: The scheme here is that the Government rebuilds the social housing stock. Because the land has been so inefficiently used we can build a lot more houses on the same land and they will be sold into the Hutt Valley market. Of course they will be affordable houses because we expect people will buy them and they will buy them at the market price. That will add to the supply of housing and help everybody.Andrew Little: Why does the Government even bother defining affordability when according to Nick Smith affordability is in the eye of the beholder" even if that beholder is an overseas speculator?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: We do not design our policy around Chinese-sounding names like the Labour Party does. People buy houses right across the price range every day. The best thing the Government can do is to utilise our land which has been historically used quite inefficiently under the old State housing model to expand the supply of housing in addition to social housing and that is what we are doing.Jami-Lee Ross: How will the housing development announced by the Minister help the local housing stock in the Hutt Valley?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: We are setting out on what will take 10 or 15 years of rebuilding many several thousand houses in the Hutt Valley. I want to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of the list member for Hutt South Chris Bishop for his relentless advocacy not just for the social housing tenants but for affordable housing in the Hutt Valley.Andrew Little: Is it correct that investors and speculators will be able to buy those 140 houses that will according to his own Government be out of reach for first-home buyers?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: Unlike the Labour Party we do not have a proscribed list of evil people who are unable to buy houses. We do not mind if they have Chinese-sounding names. We do not mind if they are people who are investing in a second house because that is their retirement savings as thousands of Kiwis including members of the Opposition have done. We just focus on expanding the supply of housing so that we can avoid the excessive housing cycles and continue to improve housing affordability.Jami-Lee Ross: For what other reasons does he have confidence in the Minister for Social Housing?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: Because of her leadership of the Government's Crown building project which will replace 8300—Phil Twyford: How many houses have been built?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: —no no the member should listen—old houses of the wrong size in Auckland State housing stock with 34000 brand new houses over 10 years. This plan has the funding in place and is a long-term plan to deliver those houses. The Minister has done a great job.Andrew Little: Why does his plan for housing involve taking public land and building unaffordable houses that will be sold to speculators?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: It is better than the Labour Party's plan which is to oppose all developments such as Point England and the Three Kings Quarry. I mean at least we are getting out and building something. But as the member will understand we are building a mixture of social houses lower-cost houses that lower-income people can afford and market-priced houses which help us pay for the whole lot. It is a very sensible balanced policy. Over the next 10 years we will rebuild the stock in the Hutt Valley but if people vote for the Labour Party nothing will happen.Andrew Little: Talking about not doing development given that the Hutt Valley land has been empty for 5 years after his Government tore down the State houses that were previously occupying it why are we mysteriously hearing about this plan for 60 affordable homes only 2½ months from a general election?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: The member will recall that we have been talking about making changes in the housing system for a number of years. Those are now coming to fruition and we are going to be able for the next 10 or 15 years to rebuild the State housing stock. We are going to use paid New Zealand labour unlike the Labour Party which is going to use free foreign workers to campaign for it.Andrew Little: How about this for a plan: fix the crisis by building affordable houses for first-home buyers and by building State houses for people who actually need them rather than yet again doing what the National Government does which is create opportunities for speculators—and after 9 years is it not time to look after first-home buyers not speculators?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: Thousands of first-home buyers are using the HomeStart programme. In fact there is enough funding for it for I think 90000 first-home buyers to take advantage of getting their first entry into housing. But to sell that plan in the election we are not going to use unpaid foreign workers in poor accommodation to knock on doors to persuade people."