1. Housing New Zealand—Financial Position and RoleJAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green) to the Minister responsible for HNZCORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSHousing New Zealand—Financial Position and Role1. JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green) to the Minister responsible for HNZC: How much more money will he have to give Housing New Zealand so that it can continue to operate after February 2017?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister responsible for HNZC): None to allow Housing New Zealand to continue to operate; it can easily do that. Reports that it is going broke" are simply wrong. As Housing New Zealand ramps up its large-scale building programme of course it may need more Government support because you would not expect an organisation that has been building 300 houses a year to have enough cash on its balance sheet to finance the building of 3000 houses over a few years.James Shaw: In relation to that answer then what is his plan to ensure that Housing New Zealand has enough finance to build the 30000 homes that he has promised?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The plan is that Housing New Zealand will complete detailed planning of the next tranche of developments in addition to those that are already under way such as the 1000-house Northcote development. It will also need to complete over the next few months a detailed financial analysis to show just what funding it needs given that it can source funding from for instance sales of surplus houses to the market. When it has done a proper job of that the Government will then consider applying more taxpayer funds to it. But we are not just going to hand Housing New Zealand hundreds of millions of dollars and hope that it does a good job.James Shaw: For a Government that prides itself on economic acumen how can he rationalise ignoring Treasury advice and allowing the near collapse of one of the country's most important pieces of social infrastructure?Hon BILL ENGLISH: If the member wants to burnish his credentials as an economic spokesman then I suggest that he consider his description of the current state of Housing New Zealand. It is ridiculous—just ridiculous. There is no reason to believe that Housing New Zealand is under financial strain or going broke and it is absolutely nowhere near near-collapse. Collapse is what happened to Solid Energy not what happens to Housing New Zealand which has $20 billion of assets and about $4 billion of debt.James Shaw: On that note does he consider it good economic management to squeeze Government entities like Solid Energy Radio New Zealand KiwiRail New Zealand Post and now Housing New Zealand to breaking point; if so which Government entity is next?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Even the media has seen fit to withdraw the story that Housing New Zealand is going broke because it is wrong and unfortunately has caused unnecessary distress particularly to staff of the organisation who understandably were astounded and bewildered at the assertion. Unfortunately the member is taking it further by saying that it is near collapse. That is an absolutely ridiculous statement.James Shaw: Why did he not invest more in Housing New Zealand back in 2009 so that it could build houses provide jobs during the recession and build up housing stock and its balance sheet for when demand inevitably picked up?Hon BILL ENGLISH: As I explained to the House yesterday the Government did exactly that because Housing New Zealand had to run a large-scale rebuilding and repairing programme in Christchurch. I know that the members of the Opposition probably did not notice the earthquake but we had to build 800 new houses and repair 5000. So it was a large-scale building programme and those skills are now being transferred to the Auckland large-scale building programme.James Shaw: Given the obvious economic drag of the housing crisis why is he continuing to treat housing primarily as a class of investment asset rather than essential social infrastructure that underpins the country's success?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government of course is an owner of a large chunk—in fact one in every 16 houses in New Zealand. We are applying ourselves to a probably 10-year programme to upgrade the housing and in fact redevelop whole communities such as is happening in Tāmaki and could happen in another dozen 15 or 20 communities around the country. The biggest step forward is that Auckland Council has finally realised that this is an important asset class for the community and for social benefit and it has produced a plan that now allows the supply of more housing as is required.James Shaw: Does he believe that the purpose of Housing New Zealand should be to ensure that nobody goes homeless in New Zealand; if not why not?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Housing New Zealand plays a role in that but the member may be interested to know there are a significant number of other organisations that over the last 2 years have worked closely with the Government and the Minister for Social Housing to ensure that for the first time New Zealand has an established and well-funded emergency housing set-up that follows the principles—which I know the member endorses—of Housing First to solve the problems of homelessness one by one for those most severely affected."