Goodhew Jo: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoodhew Jo: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3678. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon JO GOODHEW (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector) on behalf of theMinister for Social Housing: I move That the Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill the Taxation (Social Housing Reform) Bill the Housing Corporation (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill and the KiwiSaver (HomeStart) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. I want to use this opportunity to reiterate how these four bills improve the lives of vulnerable New Zealanders by providing them with social housing that meets their needs. The Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill is all about increasing the supply and quality of social housing and growing the community housing sector. There are currently 30 registered community housing providers which have 213 houses where tenants are receiving the income-related rent subsidy. They deliver niche services that meet the diverse needs of social housing tenants and we want them to grow. This legislation will help them do that.This bill gives the Ministry of Social Development flexibility in the way that it enters into agreements with social housing providers. It creates a ministerial direction power to allow the Minister for Social Housing in consultation with other housing Ministers to authorise the Ministry of Social Development to enter into tailored agreements to purchase social housing. These new tailored agreements will enable the Ministry of Social Development to look at contracts with tenants in mind and to look for ways to get better housing services and better provision of social housing. The current income-related rent subsidy will remain but the new tailored agreements will now provide greater flexibility. We have been talking to the community housing sector and it has told us loud and clear that the income-related rent subsidy alone is not sufficient to encourage community housing providers to supply properties in all circumstances. Community housing providers want to be able to enter into different types of agreements including into long-term fixed-price contracts with the Government. Long-term contracts will give them a guaranteed income they can use to borrow against to build or buy houses.The practice for far too many decades was that a tenant would be put in a State house left there and forgotten. We recognise that some social housing tenants need extra help. We want to make sure that tenants’ needs are met and as they change over time we want to provide the right housing and the right services to respond to those needs. I firmly believe that local providers understand their people’s needs best and I think that these tailored agreements will give them a greater role in determining what is best for tenants. To be clear nothing in this bill will change tenants’ eligibility for the income-related rent subsidy or how much they will have to pay in rent.It is crucial that we pass this legislation today so that we can work more effectively with the sector towards an additional 3000 places in the next 3 years and support an Auckland initiative that will see another 300 social housing places delivered by community housing providers. This will help vulnerable New Zealanders into quality accommodation. In the future as we work with the sector we will establish different types of agreements worth exploring which will be beneficial to both tenants and providers. These changes are going to make the Ministry of Social Development a smarter and more sophisticated purchaser of social housing. It will also enable the ministry to more effectively manage the social housing spend and purchase quality social housing for vulnerable people.The three other bills—the Housing Corporation (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill the KiwiSaver (HomeStart) Amendment Bill and the Taxation (Social Housing Reform) Bill—all make minor but important changes. The first ensures that payments for residential social housing provision under these agreements are GST-exempt consistent with the current treatment for residential rental payments. The second clarifies that Housing New Zealand is no longer required to provide policy advice to Ministers. That has been the role of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment for some time. The final one ensures that any prior period of membership in a complying superannuation fund should count towards the 3-year eligibility period when the member transfers to KiwiSaver. This means that more KiwiSaver members have access to their savings to assist with the purchase of a first home. I commend these bills to the House.