Peeni Henare can deny it all he likes but the facts show Kainga Ora has built just 21 net new state houses in the last year, National’s Housing Spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

Answering questions on behalf of Housing Minister Megan Woods, Associate Housing Minister Henare repeatedly “pushed back” on the fact that Kainga Ora has built just 21 net new state homes in the year from June 2021 to May 2022.

“The Government’s own Housing Dashboard confirms this. The Minister might not want to believe it, but it is a fact.

“At a time of a housing disaster under Labour with rents up $140 a week, over 4000 kids living in motels and 27,000 people on the housing waitlist, it is disgraceful that Kainga Ora is so incompetent when it comes to building new houses.

“Kainga Ora is a basket case under Labour. It has hired 1700 extra staff in the last five years and has spent $24 million fitting out an office, but it seems unable to actually to its core job: build new houses.

“Kainga Ora is taking on a mountain of debt. Papers leaked to me show that on current forecasts it will still be paying back the debt in 2081. Kainga Ora is projected to record a $662 million deficit for the 2023/34 year and by 2025 interest costs will be 39 per cent of its rental cashflow for the year.

“Officials are clearly seriously worried about the situation and the Government’s goal of 11,000 new public and transitional homes by 2024 must be in serious doubt. Officials have said there will need to be ‘significant uplift in delivery’.

“Unlike Labour, National is not ideologically fixated on Kainga Ora being the near-sole provider of social housing in New Zealand. The Government can and should be doing much more with the community housing sector to get New Zealanders houses.”