English shows how out of touch he is on housing – Labour Party
Bill English has shown how out of touch he is by claiming the Auckland housing crisis is ‘in the process of being solved’ and all that is needed is ‘a few more’ houses to be built, says Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.
“Bill English told Leighton Smith that ‘Auckland is in the process of resolving the pressures on housing’, ‘the best thing that is happening is 10,000 houses are getting built each year’, and ‘they probably need a few more’.
“Truth is, Auckland building consents are falling. And a significant percentage of consents are never built, so the actual number of houses built is below the 10,000 consents.
“Auckland doesn’t need ‘a few more’ houses; it needs 16,000 a year just to keep up with population growth, let alone address the existing shortage of up to 40,000 homes.
“It’s clear that Bill English is out of touch and complacent. Every day that Bill English sits on his hands and leaves his bungling mate Nick Smith in charge of housing, the crisis worsens.
“Bill English’s languid lack of leadership is the opposite of the action Auckland needs.
“Young families are being forced to take on record debt to buy a first home, and housing costs are eating up wage rises. Yet all Bill English does is admonish them to ‘think pretty hard about the level of debt they’re willing to take on’.
“It’s time he took responsibility for the position his policies have put Kiwi families in, and offered some real solutions.
“Labour will build 100,000 affordable houses for first home buyers, half of them in Auckland. We will ban foreign speculators and crack down on tax loopholes that encourage speculation. We will improve rental standards and invest in thousands of new state houses.
“That’s the comprehensive action plan Auckland and New Zealand needs,” says Phil Twyford.
English is part of the club of thugs stealing our state houses and turning them for a massive profit, he should be charged with crimes against the state the crooked little man.
Labour is not going to do ANY of the things stated in this press release.
Everyone knows that. Why do we let them keeping lying to us?
These people are the creators of Rogernomics.
They are the very same people who encouraged New Zealanders to fund their own retirement by become Landlords and making tenants and rent-slaves of their poor fellow countrymen.
We are now supposed to trust them to fix housing, which is something they broke, and which they secretly don’t even believe is broken?
Are New Zealanders too docile and compliant to be able to tell when their trust is being abused?
Can New Zealanders even be trusted with Democracy, really? I wonder.
“Improving rental standards”…all that seems to do is up the rents.
How are gig economy workers supposed to buy into the so called ‘Kiwi Dream’ when rents are so high?
What policies do Labour have to help life time renters, those people who are not part of the sacred group of home owners/property speculators? Which, lets face it, are one and the same group.
Sit down with a bunch of home owners and see how long it takes for them to start musing over how much they can make on ‘the family home’.
Lets see Labour talk about a Capital Gains tax with real bite…then they can take the moral high ground.