Fifteen months into government, Labour now owns the housing crisis that was created through years of denial by National, says ACT Leader David Seymour.
The latest Demographia International Housing Affordability shows all of New Zealand’s eight main housing markets are now unaffordable.
“The Government was elected to solve the housing crisis, and has had over a year to get to grips with the underlying issues, but it has completely failed.
“Phil Twyford has put all of his political capital into KiwiBuild, but it will fail because it doesn’t tackle the cause of the housing crisis. Twyford is simply buying, and slapping KiwiBuild stickers on, houses that were being built by the private sector anyway. This won't increase housing supply.
“Meanwhile, National is talking a big game on Resource Management Act reform. We’ve heard it before. The Nats had the numbers to pass fundamental RMA reform at various points in its time, but failed to do so despite ACT’s encouragement.
“They promise action in opposition, win government, fail to do what they said they would, and then apologise after New Zealanders boot them out. The four stages of the National Party political cycle are: Promise. Win. Fail. Apologise.
“The housing crisis has been created by artificially constrained land making houses more expensive. ACT has always had the solution.
“We would remove New Zealand’s large cities from the Resource Management Act, and create separate urban development legislation, prioritising land supply and reducing red tape on developers.
“ACT would also incentivise councils to consent more land for development and build more infrastructure, by sharing a portion of GST levied on construction.
“The housing crisis is now Labour’s. It must now act to make it easier for the private sector to get on and build houses.”