By KEVIN TAYLOR
Prime Minister Helen Clark had a cup of tea with state house tenants yesterday to celebrate keeping one of Labour's key election promises.
The majority of Housing New Zealand tenants have a bit more money in their pockets from today, when income-related state house rents are restored.
Low-income tenants will pay no more than 25 per cent of their income in rent. The change will affect 130,000 people living in more than 59,000 state houses.
The Government says 60 per cent of households will be between $20 and $80 a week better off.
Rent drops have already taken place for many.
Helen Clark met Sue Anderson and her neighbours in a four-bedroom state house in Hamilton yesterday for a cup of tea - and a photo opportunity.
Mrs Anderson, who looks after four children, said she was now $60 a week better off.
Her rent had fallen from $250 to just $64 a week. She loses her accommodation supplement, which offset part of the rent.
She said she would now have more choice at the supermarket, and could afford small luxuries.
"I am so much better off under a Labour Government than a National Government.
"You don't feel like you are living below the poverty line any more."
Helen Clark said the family had spent all year collecting aluminium cans so they could afford a week at the beach.
"It shows you just how marginal a lot of the family budgets have been."
She said lowering rents was the most significant move the Government could make to fight poverty. The change would cost taxpayers about $100 million.
The Prime Minister said the Government had made good progress on the pledge card promises it made before the last election.
"We are ticking them off. I think we've probably implemented most of them in full, but this was the biggie."
She brushed off concerns from private landlords that the changes had forced rents down.
The Rent Shop, which manages 1000 homes in South Auckland, said the average rent had dropped from $237 a week in April to $201 in October.
Many low-income tenants are turning away from private landlords and queuing for Housing New Zealand homes.
Helen Clark said those owning rental houses were in a market and took a risk.
"It's been known for nine years that Labour back in Government would introduce income-related rents."
She said it was important that public housing tenants were treated fairly, and that would affect the private sector. "That has got to be good for tenants overall."
Housing New Zealand would allocate on need, and she was unfazed at the possibility state house waiting lists would swell.
"I don't mind a waiting list because it shows the system's working."
Cuppa celebrates a promise kept
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