Housing Minister Phil Twyford to give property developers a sweeter KiwiBuild deal after scheme struggles

Housing Minister Phil Twyford and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern again attempted to distance the Government from previously promised KiwiBuild targets. Photo / File

Housing Minister Phil Twyford is teasing details of his upcoming KiwiBuild "recalibration", which will include providing private developers more incentives to build KiwiBuild homes.

Speaking at the Labour Party retreat in Wairarapa this afternoon, Twyford, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern again attempted to distance the Government from previously promised KiwiBuild targets.

The pair repeatedly told reporters the goals were not helpful.

The Government had previously said it would build 5000 in 2020, 10,000 the year after, and 12,000 every year after that until 2028.

"[Those] targets have not been a useful way to demonstrate our delivery programme, that's why the minister is looking at that again," Ardern said.

She revealed yesterday Twyford would bring a paper before Cabinet which would address some of KiwiBuild's problems.

Today, Twyford outlined a few the paper would look at, and how it would recalibrate the policy.

One way would be to offer a stronger incentive for developers, as well as how the Government could make KiwiBuild better for first-home buyers.

"The idea is to provide a package of assistance to developers that would be enough of an incentive to get them to commit to serious volumes of affordable housing year-on-year.

"One of the things we're trying to achieve here is to build long-term partnerships with the country's bigger residential development companies and construction firms, much in the way that successive Government's did for decades through the 1950s, 60s and 70s."

He said that would be one of the main ways the Government would deliver the KiwiBuild numbers.

"We're partnering with the private sector to get them to change their business model, to no longer build small numbers of expensive homes, but to build large numbers of affordable homes."

Ardern and Twyford repeatedly said building 100,000 KiwiBuild homes over 10 years was still the Government's target.

She confirmed Twyford's job would be safe in her first reshuffle later this year.

National Leader Simon Bridges said the Government backing away from its KiwiBuild target was embarrassing.

He said KiwiBuild had to be seen as one of the most massive public policy failures seen by a Government in recent times.

"[The Government] went in, talking a big game and haven't been able to deliver in any way. There is no way they will make that 100,000 target."

Last week, Twyford admitted the Government would fall well short of its first-year KiwiBuild target of 1000 homes by July this year.

He said only 300 would be built by that time.

Asked when he first learned the interim targets would not be met, he said after digging in to the numbers late last year, he realised the numbers weren't as hard as he had thought.