Nick Smith confirms 69,000 houses a figment of English’s imagination – Labour Party

Nick Smith has confirmed National has no plan to build 69,000 houses in Auckland, says Labour Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.

In Question Time today, Nick Smith admitted that the 69,000 figure is only the theoretical number of houses that could be built to replace 27,000 existing state houses over the next 30-50 years. There is no plan to actually build these houses, let alone to ensure they are affordable for first homebuyers or kept as state houses.

“Bill English is buckling under the pressure. He’s got no answers on the housing crisis and is making up policy on the fly. Nick Smith has now admitted the government has no plans to build 69,000 houses.

“This isn’t leadership; it’s desperation from a Prime Minister who just wishes the housing crisis would go away but won’t do anything about it.

“At the same time, Nick Smith is trying to claim the housing shortage is ‘only’ 10,000-20,000 houses but he can’t back that number up in any way. The Government’s own documents say the shortage in Auckland is 30,000-35,000 and the nationwide shortage is 60,000.

“Bill English and Nick Smith are in cloud cuckoo-land when New Zealand urgently needs is practical solutions to the housing crisis.

“Labour will build 100,000 affordable homes for first homebuyers; we’ll stop the state house sell-off and build thousands more state houses; and we’ll lock out the foreign speculators who use our houses as gambling chips,” says Phil Twyford.