Former KiwiBuild boss Stephen Barclay says he is pursuing a case of constructive dismissal against Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

This comes after the Ministry revealed earlier today that Barclay resigned amid an employment investigation that revealed complaints from employees, contractors and stakeholders regarding his "leadership behaviour".

Barclay told Larry Williams that he was “gobsmacked” by the statement.

“I absolutely resigned. I’ve been sitting on the bench for a couple of months. I had a chance to think about that over Christmas, and thought so I could move on with my life, and for the good of the programme, I should resign.”

Revealed: Former KiwiBuild boss resigned amid 'leadership complaints'

He says that he felt he had no choice but to resign.

“An investigation has been going on into me since the end of October. I asked for that investigation to be handled by someone independent, not by Andrew Crisp who has a personal relationship with all of the complainants.

“I felt that there was no issues raised with me at all when I was with MBIE. And then all of a sudden I was in this new ministry, and within two weeks I was confronted by a whole series of complaint by people who know Andrew Crisp.”

Barclay says he will be taking Crisp and the Ministry to court.

He says that the tone of that statement staggers him

“It infers that there’s a large array of people. There is one person from another Ministry, there is one person who works directly for Andrew Crisp, and there are two or three others who actually work for me and they all have a relationship with Andrew Crisp.”

Barclay says he wanted to have an investigation into everyone who worked with him, but Crisp refused.

He admits he did have complaints, but “none before the beginning of October when we went in with his industry”.

Barclay believes there was nothing wrong with management style, which he describes as being “direct”.

“A programme like KiwiBuild, with hard targets, you’ve got to make decisions, you’ve got to move forward. And that’s what I thought we were doing and doing well when we were with MBIE, and when we came into a new management team, it just cried of something blue.”

At the time he resigned at the 18^th, Barclay says that his lawyer let Crisp know he was going to do this.

He says that he hasn’t spoken to anyone until today.

“It’s very disappointing.”

Barclay believes he was forced out because he doesn’t “fit the mould” of the public service.

“My management style is different to Andrew Crisp’s. He’s a 30 year public servant, these last two years have been my first.”

In his statement, Barclay wrote that they were on track for the 1,000 target that Phil Twyford had originally promised they would build by July.

He told Larry Williams that in October, they were debating if it would be 500 or 600.

 “I don’t know how it’s gone from that down to 300 now.”

Despite his conflicts, Barclay says that he still believes in KiwiBuild.
“When I say I was on target, that doesn’t just include this year, it includes next year as well.”

A spokesman for Housing Minister Phil Twyford said as Stephen Barclay's former employer, Andrew Crisp is best placed to comment on his departure and it's not appropriate for Minister Twyford to comment on an employment matter regarding a public servant.