Monday, August 15, 2016



National's state housing rip-off

When National sells off state houses, it tells us that its done to recycle capital and allow more state houses to be built.

Bullshit:

Housing New Zealand has sold about 300 state houses for less than their government valuation, says the Labour Party.

According to documents released under the Official Information Act, most of the state houses sold between July last year and April this year were in places like Palmerston North, Gisborne, Dunedin, Invercargill and Taumarunui.

[...]

He said the government got $60 million from the sales, but could have got much more.

"On average, each of the properties has been sold at $32,000 below council valuation. And that amounts to a $12.5 million hit on the taxpaper."


These aren't the prudent sales of a government trying to manage the state housing stock and ensure it has the right-sized houses in the right places. Instead, its a fire sale, dumping these houses at a discount simply for the sake of selling them. And the government is doing this purely to degrade the capacity of Housing New Zealand to perform its vital task of ensuring that every kiwi has a roof over their heads.

People are going homeless because of this policy. It is a fucking crime, and National's Ministers need to be held to account for it.