Budget offers rural loans

An extra $2.5 million next year will be given to the Housing Corporation to extend a rural loans scheme helping people to buy or build houses in rural areas.

Funding for the scheme, now operating in Northland and the East Cape, will rise to $17 million in the next four years.

Associate Minister of Housing Tariana Turia said: "About 250 loans will be available each year for households wishing to build or buy in selected rural areas."

Particular attention will be given to helping to build and renovate houses for families moving back to their original homes.

The announcement comes amid debate in Northland over the number of Maori families returning home from high-rent areas such as Auckland but ending up in substandard houses and caravans.

The debate was sparked by the deaths in a house with no electricity in the tiny Northland town of Herekino of three children whose family had moved from Auckland.