No amount of spin is going to get the government out of their promises on Kiwibuild, which are collapsing under the weight of Phil Twyford’s hubris: Quote:
Housing Minister Phil Twyford says an official document saying the Government could not fund KiwiBuild themselves was simply poorly-worded.
Twyford has repeatedly promised that the $2b allocated for KiwiBuild by the Government would be enough to fund the scheme to build 100,000 affordable houses over ten years – with the money being recycled over and over again through sale of the houses.
But a document surrounding the Government’s plans to buy over 7000 of those houses “off the plan” from private developers contains the line: “there is insufficient funding for the Crown to deliver all 100,000 KiwiBuild dwellings by itself.”
National’s Housing spokeswoman Judith Collins has seized on this, describing it as “yet another broken promise” and “proof that its budget was always unrealistic and bad news for the other priority areas which will lose funding thanks to Mr Twyford’s failure to deliver on his ill-thought out pipe dream.”
“From a cast-iron election pledge to build 100,000 additional houses itself, the Government’s KiwiBuild plan has contorted into nothing more than going to private developers with a subsidy and a plea for help.”
Twyford said the document was poorly worded and $2b was still enough to build the 100,000 homes. End quote.
I think Phil Twyford is going to get a call from Darryl Kerrigan shortly to tell him to get his hand off it and to stop dreamin’. Quote:
“This comment, although could be better worded, merely indicates the Government will partner with Iwi, developers and builders to build affordable homes. This was always our intention,” Twyford said. End quote.
Liar, liar, shiny pants on fire. The policy was for the government to build new houses, on top of those already being built by the private sector. Quote:
Labour’s election policy on the promise does note that “Labour will partner with the private sector to build 100,000 homes”. And Twyford has talked about buyings homes off the plan for months.
But Collins has other arrows in her quiver from the document – noting that it says the Government will “facilitate” rather than “build” the 100,000 homes.
Twyford said this was a meaningless wording change.
“We are building 100,000 affordable homes for Kiwi families. It’s the nature of tender documents for the language to be opaque. There is no significance in the use of the different terms,” he said.
The wider critique Collins made surrounds whether or not KiwiBuild homes will be ones that would not have been built by the private sector anyway.
Twyford is adamant that the homes he will buy off the plan are ones that wouldn’t exist – at least in an affordable form – without the Government.
“The buying off the plans initiative does three things. It enables developments that otherwise would not have been undertaken to be completed, it speeds up developments that otherwise would have been completed more slowly and ensures the construction of affordable homes, rather than McMansions that young Kiwi families cannot afford,” Twyford said.
One part of KiwiBuild has definitely changed since the election, and is noted within the planning document – the promise that the most expensive homes built under the scheme would be $600,000 or under.
The KiwiBuild document notes that homes in Auckland or Queenstown with three or more bedrooms would be capped at $650,000 instead of $600,000.
This will be a small slice of the total build – but plenty enough to give Twyford a headache. End quote.
Twyford’s own hubris is going to give more than him a headache. If the private sector is now getting a subsidy to build the homes they won’t be building homes for private sale. The government, it seems, are intent on buying the houses for more than they are worth, creating a subsidy to the builder. Then, selling them for less than they are worth giving a double whammy to the poor taxpayer. If this is the case he won’t have any money left from his $2 billion slush fund due to being tucked on both sides of the house build.
Twyford is getting close to having to ride a unicycle and wear clown shoes, clown pants and clown make-up.
