Labour back tracking on housing policy - Key

Labour's being accused of a back track on its housing policy.

The Prime Minister says David Shearer reversed his party's position during his state of the nation speech yesterday.

The Labour leader delivered his first big speech of the year yesterday which contained no policy, but Mr Shearer says that's because the major housing package was announced only a few months ago.

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The party's KiwiBuild policy aims to build 100,000 affordable homes over a 10 year period.

However John Key says his party's belief that Labour's policy is dishonest has been proven right.

"He's now backing away from the policies, saying 'yeah, if you want a $300,000 house in Auckland it's called a one bedroom apartment'."

John Key says that's what National's been telling him all along.

But Mr Shearer insists it is possible to cheaply build a house in Auckland.

"I've met housing companies that are doing it right now, they've shown me houses that they have built for what we say we can be building them for and I know that if we are able to build them in scale, in bulk, we can bring the prices down considerably."

Photo: NZ Herald