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Tauranga, Invercargill selected for social housing experiment

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff ,
Publish Date
Wed, 6 May 2015, 2:21PM
Tauranga (NZ Herald)
Tauranga (NZ Herald)

Tauranga, Invercargill selected for social housing experiment

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff ,
Publish Date
Wed, 6 May 2015, 2:21PM

Updated 6.11pm: The Government has named the regions that'll be first in line for its social housing policy.

The scheme will see the Government transfer Housing New Zealand homes to approved community providers.

Housing New Zealand Minister Bill English says Tauranga and Invercargill have been selected as the first regions where the transfers will occur.

However there are no details yet on how many Housing New Zealand properties will be handed over in each region.

The Government is in the dark as to what demand there will be for social housing in the two regions chosen to roll out the policy.

Bill English is unable to say what demand there is for social housing in the two regions.

"Well that's what we'll find out, by um, offering these opportunities, we'll see what interest there is from community housing providers."

He says house prices have influenced the choice in choosing the regions rather than starting in Auckland.

"It's just the continuous increases in the house prices there, it makes it pretty tricky for everyone to do the sums and get them to add up."

Labour is unimpressed with the government starting its state housing sales.

Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford says it's not the right solution.

"Both those cities have waiting lists of people who need more social housing. It's not clear to me how changing the ownership will fix that problem."

He says they don't have anything against more community housing involvement.

"We just think the state house sell off will do nothing to tackle the big problems of the housing crisis. There's a shortage of housing and too much substandard cold, damp housing that is making our children sick."

Invercargill was chosen because of its stable demand for social housing.

Councillor Peter Kett believes this will see an improvement in properties rented by the elderly.

"We do have problems down here, the older units that people are in are very cold, expensive to heat and haven't been purposefully built for the elderly."

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