Kāinga Ora shake-up winds clock back to 1905 and NZ’s state housing revolution - Editorial

The Government has revealed a shake-up of Kāinga Ora. Photo / NZME

Editorial

• Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s shake-up of Kāinga Ora aims to address its financial viability and core mission.
• The plan includes selling 900 properties and building 1500 new homes annually, with 400 retrofits.
• Labour criticised the lack of commitment to building more public houses, amid declining building consents.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s shake-up of Kāinga Ora might appear hard-nosed but something needs to happen to get the country’s biggest landlord back to its world-leading origins of more than a century ago.

When Prime Minister Richard Seddon passed the Workers’ Dwellings Act in 1905, New Zealand became the first nation in the Western world to provide public housing for its people.

It was thought the measures would allow all Kiwis a better standard of living if the state cut out “greedy” landlords.

But the high quality of those first houses meant rents that were beyond what most workers could afford.

It would take decades before the model, and economy, allowed mass-produced homes to be built cheaply and quickly, with the first state house officially being completed in Miramar in 1937.

Social housing, both here or abroad, has never been a straightforward issue but for years now Kāinga Ora – which owns about 75,000 properties - has been accused of falling short of meeting its lofty foundational aims.

This week’s “turnaround plan” comes after an independent review led by Sir Bill English which found it was no longer “financially viable” as it was being run.

The Government’s latest plans will include the sale of about 900 mostly older and “unsuitable” properties as part of aims to slash deficits by $190 million this year – and $354m by 2027/28.

But with new builds planned to number around 1500 a year, along with 400 retrofits of existing homes, Bishop promised it would not be a “fire sale”.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop hopes the turnaround plan will see Kāinga Ora focus on its core mission of building and maintaining homes. Photo / Mark Mitchell

He says Kāinga Ora has been given “huge amounts of money” in the past and asked to embark on building sprees that saw many houses built in the wrong places or failing to meet the needs of modern Kiwis.

Predictably, he also took aim at the previous Labour Government’s handling of the agency.

“In the past five years, they have sold, demolished or ended the lease on more than 5000 properties as part of their normal stock renewal process,” he told reporters.

“The plan allows them to do more of this so the old, unfit housing stock can be renewed more quickly.”

But Labour didn’t take it lying down with its housing spokesman Kieran McAnulty firing back: “Chris Bishop is full of it.”

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Labour claims there is still no commitment to build more public houses.

Hopes that the private sector would step in and help fill the social housing stock gap do appear hopeful, with the latest building consents for new homes being down by almost 10% last year.

It’s tough times in the building trade and Kāinga Ora will not be immune from the challenges.

But it could not continue to be financially unviable, and a firm hand by the Housing Minister will be needed to ensure it concentrates on its core mission of building and managing state houses that are fit for purpose.

As history has shown us, time and time again, there is no simple solution to social housing, but a narrowed scope and “back-to-basics approach” is a good place to start.