Twyford Phil: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13164. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—TeAtatū): I wanted to continue with my recounting of Nick Smith’s appearance at the Social Services Committee. He came along and he was asked how the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill would result in improvement in housing affordability given that it only allows for an immediate increase in the supply of greenfield land and some fast-track consenting. It was pointed out to him that given the state of the Auckland property market and given the strong market incentives it is very likely that builders will build expensive houses—houses for instance that are being sold for $700000 or $800000 or more in Auckland—bearing in mind that only 5 percent of houses that are currently being built are in the affordable range. Mr Smith came along to the select committee and when this was pointed out to him he agreed that yes it is quite possible that this bill would result in expensive houses being built.When he was asked how this would help the stated objectives of the bill his explanation was: “Well if builders build expensive houses as they may well do then someone is going to buy those expensive houses and when they buy those expensive houses they will move out of their existing houses thereby freeing up some houses.” We do not know how expensive the houses that they were living in before were but this is as my colleague Jacinda Ardern pointed out pure trickle-down housing economics. What we will go to debate in this Committee stage is that there is nothing in this bill that provides any assurance—and I will quote Auckland Council’s own publicstatements to the Minister about this—or will guarantee the building of any more affordable housing.The Property Council came along to the select committee as did the Salvation Army Todd Property Tauranga City Council and Auckland Council and they all told the select committee under direct questioning that this bill would not necessarily result in any more affordable housing being built. All we have is Nick Smith’s fairytale economics that if some more expensive houses are built somehow that increase in the supply—no matter how expensive those houses will be no matter how intractable the cost drivers of housing are in the Auckland market and no matter how powerful the market incentives are for builders and property developers to build $800000 houses—and somehow this bill by bringing a little bit more greenfield land into the system are going to result in an improvement in housing affordability or affordable housing. It is nonsense it is a hoax and unfortunately it fits within the tinkering approach that this Minister has made his hallmark in this portfolio.It would not be such a bone of contention that this bill was inadequate in this way if the Government had a comprehensive package on housing but it does not. It does nothing to deal with the problem of speculation in Auckland. It refuses to take the advice of Treasury of the OECD of the IMF and of virtually every mainstream economist in this country who says that there should be a capital gains tax in order to take the speculative heat out of the housing market. For some reason the Government has made a decision and John Key has made a promise that they are not willing to step away from. No matter how sound that proposition is they are not willing to consider a capital gains tax. They are not willing to go along with the two-thirds of New Zealanders who believe that offshore speculators should not be able to buy housing in New Zealand that New Zealanders should have first crack at buying a house and that it is unacceptable for real estate agencies to be going to Hong Kong and Singapore and marketing New Zealand residential property as some kind of international bargain-basement offer because there is no capital gains tax no stamp duty and no restrictions on offshore speculators. In fact the Government actively encourages offshore speculators to come into this market and bid up the prices of New Zealand houses and outbid Kiwi first-home buyers at auction.The Government is not willing to build affordable houses it is not willing to crack down on speculators and it is not willing to comprehensively reform the Resource Management Act to facilitate affordable housing. All we have is this tinkering inadequate bill which is a short-term measure and even then—even then—there is no assurance that it will result in any more affordable housing or any better affordability in the housing market. So this bill is a great disappointment.