Renters stuck with rises

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

May I quote from the Newshub article in yesterday's paper, “Perfect storm: Cost of living in on the rise in NZ”.

“Over the quarter, the average household spent 10.26 percent of their income on rent and almost 19 percent on food.”

What a load of rubbish! As I was reading this, the TV news reported that the average rent was over $500 per week!

Locals are spending well over 50 percent of income on rent and have little left over for food.

The current Government seems to lack knowledge of basic economics.

As a contractor, any increase in material costs just gets passed on to clients. Most businesses and landlords do the same.

The end result is that it is the poor consumer and renter at the bottom of the chain, who can least afford to pay extra costs, who ends up paying more because they have no one else to pass the costs on to.

This seems very wrong. But apart from having a conscience, and under-charging some clients, I have no answer to the problem.

Kevin Missen