Turei Metiria: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 30 June 2015. Volume:707;Page:4845. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green)to the Minister responsible for HNZC: Does he stand by his statement that “Anyone that wants to have a go at this will have to show that they’ve got the capacity to manage the properties to manage the finances to look after the tenants and to help redevelop our social housing community”?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Acting Minister responsible for HNZC): Yes.Metiria Turei: Will the Minister guarantee to New Zealanders that every State house property sold to a community housing provider will be retained for social housing indefinitely so that vulnerable tenants are properly looked after?Hon PAULA BENNETT: As we have said previously part of the contract will be that they have to be taking on the tenants. If they wish to sell—to redevelop for example so where there are two or three houses to build five or six—they would have to go to the Community Housing Regulatory Authority to seek permission to do that. We would then have to know that it was in the best interests of the tenants and not a reduction in the number of houses.Metiria Turei: Has the Minister any of his officials or any other Government MP told Horizon Housing or other potential community housing providers that they can sell the properties on for a profit in the future as a sweetener for the deal?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I can only really speak for the Minister responsible for HNZC and certainly for the Minister for Social Housing when I say absolutely not and it is certainly not to our knowledge that anyone else has as well.Metiria Turei: Has the Minister any of his officials or any other Government MP suggested to Horizon Housing or other potential community housing providers a time frame by which they can stop providing social housing and sell the properties on for a profit?Hon PAULA BENNETT: No not to our knowledge and if they were doing that it would not be at the direction of Ministers.Metiria Turei: Will the Minister guarantee that if the Government permits the providers to sell the properties on for a profit at a later date the Crown will have the first right of refusal to buy back those properties and keep them for social housing purposes?Hon PAULA BENNETT: We are working our way through what that contract will look like as far as when the purchase is done and how we ensure that they need to go to the Community Housing Regulatory Authority for that but the purpose behind it most certainly is to ensure that we are still providing services to tenants and housing for them. So we cannot predict every situation that might occur but what we will be doing is ensuring that they are in the interests of tenants and not just a profit they are making for that.Metiria Turei: Has Horizon Housing or any other potential community housing provider discussed with the Minister his officials or other Government MP that any purchase would be reliant on those providers being able to sell the houses on for a profit at a later date?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I can speak only on the behalf of the Minister responsible for HNZC and the Minister for Social Housing and say absolutely not. If anyone else has it has certainly not been at their direction.Metiria Turei: What discount has the Government offered Horizon Housing or other community housing providers on the sale of the State-house properties given that New Zealand State-housing providers have said that they would have to be sold at virtually nil in order to make long-term social housing financially viable for those providers?Hon PAULA BENNETT: We have received no bids and we are not at the negotiation stage.