Walker Holly: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWalker Holly: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12152. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]HOLLY WALKER (Green):Well there can be no doubt that we are experiencing a housing crisis in New Zealand at the moment. In my contribution I would like to start with some statistics that illustrate the scale of this crisis particularly in Auckland and Christchurch. In May the average house price in Auckland was $735000. It now takes 70 percent of the average income to service the mortgage on a lower quartile - priced house in Auckland and that is in a context in which unaffordability is understood to be when you have to spend more than 30 percent of your income on housing.We know that there is a major shortage of affordable housing in Auckland with an estimated 13000 new homes needed each year and only 3000 to 4000 being built hardly any of which fall into the affordable category. In Christchurch the situation is just as pronounced although more concentrated in the private rental market. TradeMe statistics show that the average rent in Christchurch was up 26 percent in the May to June period compared with the same time last year and demand for rental properties was up 47 percent.According to the Tenants Protection Association survey 70 percent of respondents had had a rent increase post the earthquake and 88 percent reported paying more than 25 percent of their income on rent. Christchurch homes we know are cold and mouldy with 48 percent reporting mould in their homes. Nationwide we know that 70 percent of the children who live in poverty in New Zealand are living in private rental homes and very few of these are insulated. Although these problems are most pronounced in Auckland and Christchurch housing affordability and quality are major challenges all over the country.So what did the Government propose to do about it in Budget 2013? Well we got the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill—reported back to the House today—and the Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill. The former is an unimaginative and ideological attempt to increase land supply and fast track new housing developments by running roughshod over local democracy and the Resource Management Act. The latter is the beginning of the dismantling of Housing New Zealand as a social agency.There is no guarantee under the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill that any new affordable houses will actually be built as a result and the one positive element of the Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill—the extension of the income-related rent subsidy to community housing providers—is undermined by the lack of adequate funding for the Social Housing Fund and the lack of Government support for capacity-building in that sector.Meanwhile you will hear the Minister of Housing crow about how Housing New Zealand is building more homes than ever—2000 new homes a year for the next 2 years if we are to believe the Prime Minister. But what he will not tell you is that Housing New Zealand is busy demolishing and selling houses as fast as it can build them. So those 2000 new houses will not result in any net increase in its stock of affordable housing and that is if it can even build them because it managed to build only 154 houses in the last financial year. We have got a long way to go before we start building 1000 a year in the next 2 years.I want to talk about what a smart Green solution to this housing crisis would look like. First of all we would start by building affordable houses as a matter of urgent priority both social and community houses and homes that are available for families to rent to buy as part of a progressive ownership proposal. This would see the Government building affordable homes for families with children to move into immediately. They could start paying a basic weekly rent to cover the cost of the investment while anythingthey paid in addition to that would go towards purchasing equity in that home. It is a way to help families into homeownership without the need for a conventional bank mortgage or deposit and it directly addresses the lack of supply of affordable housing.Secondly we would introduce a warrant of fitness for all rental properties—not only for State houses but also for the private rental market in which 70 percent of the children living in poverty are currently housed. This would have to include minimum insulation standards as well as other standards of liveability and weathertightness. We would help landlords to meet these standards by extending the Warm Up New Zealand: Healthy Homes insulation scheme and better targeting it towards landlords with low-income tenants.Thirdly we would amend the Residential Tenancies Act to ensure more secure rental tenure for tenants in order to stop the social economic and health damage that is done when frequent evictions require families to move sometimes dozens of times a year.