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Many New Zealand families are living in homes with poor insulation, they're cold, they're
damp, and they're not a good environment for our kids to be growing up in.
Inadequate housing leads to more days off school sick for our kids, and time off work
for their parents. Some of these health issues often lead to more serious problems in later
life. However you look at it, cold, and damp houses
aren't a good place for Kiwi families to call home.
Since National came into office, we've invested $347 million to significantly expand the home
insulation scheme. In four and a half years, 215,000 families have been able to access
government grants to make their homes warmer and drier.
In this year's Budget, we've targeted even more funding for low-income and high-health
needs families. A further 46,000 families will be able to insulate their homes.
Families who are renting their homes from Housing New Zealand will also be able to live
in warmer, healthier homes. We're on track to have insulated every state
house that is capable of being insulated by the end of this year. This is a promise we
made to New Zealand families at the last election. And we've kicked off a programme of reorganising
the social housing sector. Along with better insulation, Housing New Zealand have started
to add bedrooms to around 2000 houses, so they meet the needs of the families living
in them at the moment. Improving existing housing is one part of
the puzzle. The rising cost of house prices today is a real concern, and it's making it
extremely difficult for a young family to climb onto the property ladder.
Rising house prices creates more demand for state assistance, and affects New Zealand's
financial stability. While National's responsible economic management has kept downward pressure
on interest rates so far, rising house prices are having an effect.
One of the big problems is there's not enough new land being made available to build new
houses on. This is driving up the overall cost of both building a new house, and purchasing
existing homes. The Government, and local councils, are coming
together to address the issue of housing affordability, and we've already started in Auckland. We
worked with the Auckland Council to agree on a Housing Accord.
We're giving Auckland Council the tools to streamline the development of new housing,
and we've set the ambitious target to see 39,000 new houses consented in Auckland over
the next three years. Other councils will be able to work with the
government to agree similar housing accords in the future, once legislation has passed
through Parliament. There is no quick fix, and housing affordability
is affected by a range of factors, so we're tackling the problem on a range of fronts.
We're also addressing the high cost of construction, by cutting red tape and regulations. And
we're investing in training more tradesmen - like builders, brick layers, and carpenters.
We are committed to helping more families live in warmer, drier, more affordable housing.