Horns locked over housing

National and Labour both claimed they had a solution to the country's housing problem and John Key and David Cunliffe locked horns during TVOne's leaders' debate over whose policy would work better.

Key scoffed at Labour's Kiwibuild scheme, under which 100,000 new homes will be built over 10 years funded by an injection of $1.5 billion.

And Cunliffe ridiculed National's Homestart programme, which gives first-homebuyers bigger grants of up to $20,000 to add to KiwiSaver savings towards house deposits. The scheme will cost an extra $218 million over the next five years.

The Greens promised a rent-to-buy scheme for families with children and a capital gains tax excluding the family home.

Internet-Mana promised to create 50,000 jobs but the message was overshadowed by the party's press secretary, Pam Corkery, telling journalists to "just piss off".

And NZ First offered 75 per cent Crown funding for the $2.4b underground railway through central Auckland, blasting National's plans to spend $14b on new highways over 10 years.

Mysteriously, Labour announced it had dropped six out of seven commitments after seeing the Treasury's pre-election fiscal update. But it would not say what the commitments were.