State housing: National’s Nicola Willis accuses government of inflating waitlist for state housing and exorbitant wait times

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Willis says the government is only responsible for its inability to meet the demand for state housing.

“This was a government that was elected on a promise to solve New Zealand’s housing problems and these numbers show that they have just gotten worse. They have to live up to their responsibilities,” she said.

“You can judge a government not only by the number of needy people it helps, but also by the number of vulnerable people it creates. What we have seen under Labor are thousands more people being forced out of the country. private rental market with average rents of around $ 100 per year.week, and these people end up lining up at MSD [the Ministry of Social Development] and ask for a state house – and the government just can’t meet that request. “

Newshub also revealed that the number of people in category A20 – the most vulnerable and priority New Zealanders on the public housing waiting list – has exploded in recent years. In March 2018, shortly after Labor took over government, the ranking was empty – but in 2019, 21 people were placed in the A20 category. In 2020, that number has risen to 87. Today, it has more than doubled from last year – and 198 people are in desperate need of housing.

Willis believes the failures of successive governments have also contributed to New Zealand’s chronic housing shortage, particularly following the implementation of the controversial Resource Management Act (RMA) in 1991.

“Our housing problems have accumulated over successive governments. If you look at the graph when it all started to go wrong, it was around 1991 – when the [RMA] entered. It’s good that we’re going to scrap it, it needs to be replaced – it stopped building houses, ”Willis told The AM Show on Monday morning.

The National Party is calling for an emergency bill with urgent measures to be implemented as the government pushes to reform RMA – legislation that has been accused of hampering the development of new housing due to of its complexity and convoluted regulations. In July of last year, an independent review committee recommended repealing it and starting over.

The draft Natural and Built Environments Act (LNB) is the primary replacement for RMA. The government plans to replace the legislation with three new laws in this legislature, but the overall process has been underway for years.

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