Minister hangs up as leaky homes phone conference gets heated

A phone conference between mayors of cities worst hit by the leaky buildings crisis and Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson ended badly yesterday when Mr Williamson hung up.
North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said the minister hung up when discussions got heated. At issue was the Government's proposal to pay 10 per cent of the estimated $20 billion costs to fix rotting homes.
Mr Williams, worried about North Shore's 26 per cent contribution to claims against his council, said discussions broke down after he accused the Government of setting up the scheme to fail.
He alleged the Government stood to make a profit from the disaster because of the 12.5 per cent GST charged for goods and services to repair homes.
The 12.5 per cent would outstrip the Government's payment offer of 10 per cent.
The 10 per cent offer, which left homeowners paying more than 60 per cent, would lead to the state making on the deal, Mr Williams said.
"I said that if I was really stupid, I'd be wondering if the Government was setting this deal up to fail," Mr Williams said.
Yesterday's phone conference involved Mr Williamson and the mayors of Manukau, Auckland, North Shore, Waitakere, Tauranga and Wellington.
Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby had no comment on the minister hanging up, saying he was not a part of the discussion that immediately preceded Mr Williamson hanging up, but heard what was said.
Mr Crosby agreed that the mayors wanted the Government to increase its offer above 10 per cent. He stressed the Government was not offering a cash grant of 10 per cent of the costs to fix a leaky home claim.
Instead, the deal involved discounted interest rate loans of 10 per cent of the cost, according to each victim's financial circumstances.
North Shore Mayor Mr Williams said the mayors were seeking at least a 20 per cent Government contribution.
Mr Crosby has asked Tauranga council chief executive Stephen Town to prepare a report for the council early next year on how the current package could affect ratepayers.
He said that, to be fair to the Government, the real size of the leaky building problem was not understood, with a lot of it based on best guess.
The big issue for Tauranga victims of leaky homes were those who used private building certifiers and could not sue the council.
Mr Crosby said that where the council was involved in claims, it was generally the third respondent. When claims were lodged, the council notified its insurers, who managed the payments from that point onwards.
If there was a payout, the council paid the insurance excess which was currently up to $50,000. He said there was still work to be done on finding a model to assist those that had no legal right to sue the council.