Finance Minister Grant Robertson says the Govt will relook at its KiwiBuild targets

Finance Minister Grant Robertson says Cabinet will discuss KiwiBuild today. Photo / Stephen Parker

Finance Minister Grant Robertson says the Government will relook at its 10-year KiwiBuild targets.

This comes a week after Housing Minister Phil 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.

Cabinet meets for the first time this year today and the issues surrounding KiwiBuild will be discussed, says Robertson.

He told RNZ Twyford would update ministers on what the issues with the policy were.

"There have clearly been some blockages – there clearly are reasons why it's not going at the rate, in this first year, that we wanted."

Asked about the Government falling short of its first-year target, Robertson said the Government needed to "sit down and relook at the targets as they go out over the next few years".

As well as targeting 1000 KiwiBuild homes by July 2019, Twyford had previously committed to building 10,000 in 2020/21 and 12,000 every year after that until 2028.

Asked if those targets were still in place, Twyford told the Herald last week he "hasn't looked at that" and would not make statements about whether or not those targets would be met.

"Targets are targets – they're something you set out to achieve but not things you can guarantee. We're not stepping away from those targets."

Despite the fact Robertson admitted the first year target wouldn't be met, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said he thought it would.

Asked by a reporter if he thought the Government would still be able to get to its 1000 KiwiBuild homes target by July, he said, "I believe so, yes."

"We're not giving up at all – we've got six months to wind this up as fast as we can, and practically we will."

Robertson said the Government was "completely committed" to having more affordable homes built in New Zealand.

But he said KiwiBuild was "a marathon, not a sprint".

"This is a long term project – we're not going to turn around many years of neglect of our affordable housing market in six months. We have to look at it as a 10 year programme and we are."