National, Labour hammer out issue of state housing

State housing looks to be one of the sideline battlefields of this election, with the major parties taking opposing stances.

National's housing policy is due to be released in the next few days but housing spokesman David Carter has already made his views clear.

He raised the ire of Housing Minister Steve Maharey last month by advocating a return to the policy of encouraging state house tenants to buy their own homes.

Maharey responded by defending the Government's expansion of the state housing portfolio and attacking Carter for advocating a return to the 1990s.

"This Government's investment in affordable housing for low-income New Zealanders is in stark contrast to National's policy of selling off state houses," Maharey said.

"National sold 13,000 state houses during the 1990s, leading to long waiting lists and families forced into difficult circumstances."

Carter agreed with the 13,000 sales estimate, but said National took the right decision by selling state housing in areas of low need such as Wanganui and Westport, and encouraging tenants to buy their own houses.

He did not believe housing would be a major election issue, although issues such as leaky buildings were important to many people.

He criticised the Government for "fostering a culture of welfare dependency so people aren't stepping up and taking responsibility for their debts".

Carter has also spoken out against state house rentals being as low as $33 a week and individual tenants being thousands of dollars in arrears, which showed a lack of management by Housing NZ.

"The Government policy of managing the state housing stock is stupid," he said. "They would be far better selling the expensive houses and buying modern houses."
But Maharey has used the Government's $134 million social housing boost, announced in the Budget, as evidence of a wider platform of support.

The money paid for the introduction of the KiwiSaver scheme, under which savers can get up to $5000 as a top-up to a deposit on a first home to bridge the affordability gap.

It also went towards financing a widening of the criteria for Kiwibank's mortgage insurance scheme.

Carter described KiwiSaver as "a drop in the bucket" and said it would not make a significant difference to levels of home ownership.

But whether the Government has done enough to fulfil the need for people to buy their own homes amid a price boom has been questioned.

A Herald DigiPoll survey of 1000 people this month showed 61 per cent thought the Government was not doing enough to help first-home buyers and more than two-thirds believed it was harder for first-timers to get a house than it was when Labour became the Government six years ago.

State matter

* Housing NZ owns or manages 66,127 houses.

* About 190,000 people call a state house their home.

* The Government wants another 1000 state houses this year.

* It plans to have an extra 3000 houses by 2008.