Government has 'no plans' to implement rent control policy, Robertson says

Finance Minister Grant Robertson reading his Wellbeing Budget 2021 in Parliament, Wellington yesterday. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Finance Minister Grant Robertson has this afternoon moved to end speculation his Government is gearing up to introduce a rent control policy.

Although he poured cold water on the scheme being introduced any time soon, he has left the door open for the policy to be adopted at a later date.

It comes after Treasury documents last month revealed Housing Minister Megan Woods has requested advice on rent control from officials.

Robertson has previously refused to rule out such a policy, saying it was "not on our agenda at the moment, but we will keep an eye on what happens".

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But asked about rent control today at a post-Budget speech, Robertson moved to "disavow" the questioner of the idea that such a scheme would be implemented.

"We have no plans to do that."

Speaking to media after his speech, Robertson again said the Government was not planning on adopting this policy but caveated it with "at this time".

"However, as we have said numerous times, we will keep an eye on the situation – but there is no evidence we will need to put them in place."

There was some concern yesterday's announcement benefits will increase by up to $55 a week would lead to rent increase.

But Robertson said he was confident this was not the case.

"The history that we have seen, particularly when there have been benefit increases actually is that rents do not go up disproportionately to what they would normally do," he told media today.

Robertson's comments on rent control will come as welcome news to National leader Judith Collins, who has been calling for Robertson to rule them out for some weeks.

They had been tried in the past elsewhere, she told RNZ, and had been "an absolute disaster and have led to massive shortages of rental properties".

But the news will be a blow to the Green Party, which was keen on the idea.

"We have got some rents that are too high and that is really harming people. It's not directly related to anything that an individual landlord has done it's just a feature of a very sick market," Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said.