5. Question No. 5—Housing and Urban DevelopmentHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban DevelopmentQuestion No. 5—Housing and Urban Development5. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development: Is the KiwiBuild programme delivering good value for money for New Zealand taxpayers?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Yes it is. The 10356 contracts are being committed. Affordable homes that KiwiBuild has or will enable are worth approximately $3.5 billion. In terms of costs primarily the Crown has bought $196 million of land to build homes on including at the Unitec campus in Auckland and the Wakatipu High School site in Queenstown. Hon Judith Collins: Is he aware that Budget documents show that in total over the three years of this Government $48 million will be spent on the KiwiBuild Unit and KiwiBuild operations at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well I'm aware that the estimates show $21 million will have been spent on administration of the KiwiBuild programme from the time that the Government took office through to 30 June 2019. That's primarily spent on due diligence for land acquisition and commercial negotiations—for example engineers being contracted to assess whether housing can be built on Crown land infrastructure and planning assessments legal advice on development agreements planning and Resource Management Act advice and applications.SPEAKER: No. The Minister will have another crack at actually answering the question that was asked. Does the member want it repeated?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Sure.Hon Judith Collins: Thank you Mr Speaker. Is he aware that Budget documents show that in total over the three years of this Government $48 million will be spent on the KiwiBuild Unit and KiwiBuild operations at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Yes I am aware of that but I'm also aware that the estimates show that in the period to date $21 million has been spent on administration of the programme—primarily on due diligence for development and construction work.Hon Judith Collins: Is he also aware that if he is able to deliver the 1600 houses he has forecast by July next year that will equate to a spend on overheads for bureaucrats of $30000 per house delivered?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well based on the member's premises the maths might be correct but it's also true to say that KiwiBuild has enabled over $150 worth of affordable homes for every dollar spent so far on the administration of the programme. A 150:1 benefit-cost ratio at the beginning of a 10-year programme is pretty darn good.Paul Eagle: How does the value of the homes enabled by KiwiBuild compare to the administration costs of the programme?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Thank you Mr Speaker. KiwiBuild has enabled more than $150 worth of affordable homes for every dollar spent so far on the administration of the programme. We've acknowledged that KiwiBuild hasn't ramped up as fast as we'd planned and that the fixed costs of the programme will be higher because of this. But the early results do show that the model has the potential to enable a great number of affordable homes for a relatively modest investment.Hon Judith Collins: If it is ramping up then how many houses per year does the KiwiBuild policy aim to deliver?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well I've made it very clear to the member that we're not setting any interim targets. But I will say this to the member: no matter how far short we might fall from our early targets for that programme we will have done a lot more than the previous Government even attempted to do.Paul Eagle: What sites has the Crown purchased in the programme so far?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well the $196 million has been invested in acquiring land for housing across New Zealand dozens of different projects—the largest of which are Unitec where more than 3000 State KiwiBuild—Hon Dr Nick Smith: We announced that.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: —and market homes will be built in Auckland; and 300 homes—many of them affordable—at the Wakatipu site in Queenstown.Hon Dr Nick Smith: We announced that too.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: But you did nothing about it.Hon Dr Nick Smith: We sure did.SPEAKER: Order! Order! Dr Smith can we let the Hon Mrs Collins ask the question? Thank you.Hon Judith Collins: How many houses will the $48 million spent on the operation of the KiwiBuild programme deliver?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well the $21 million that has been spent so far out of the projected $48 million for the three-year period has enabled 10356 affordable KiwiBuild homes to be built—worth approximately $3.5 billion.Hon Judith Collins: Does he agree with Phil Twyford MP who has previously said that people can't live in a pipeline"?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: But people can live in homes that are contracted and committed and will be built."