Dawn Chorus: HUD told to look at rent control

TLDR & TLDL: The Government has asked officials for an initial report next week on measures to control rents, including the unlikely last resort of a rent freeze as was used in the first lockdown. See more on that below the paywall fold for paid subscribers.

Assoc Housing Minister Poto Williams has said ‘nothing is off the table’ when it comes to controlling rising rents, but rent controls seem an unlikely last resort. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKaka

Elsewhere in the news today:

• wholesale interest rates surged again overnight after the Bank of England hiked interest rates again and the European Central Bank took a more hawkish view on how to deal with surprisingly high inflation in Europe;

• the failure of Transmission Gully’s PPP j/v to complete it before Christmas has cost it $7.5m; and,

• Air NZ is the first company to get the ‘test to return’ power to send close contacts back to work after a negative RAT before the end of their 10-day self isolation period as they’ve already been hit by staff shortages.

Paid subscribers should look out later today for my weekly ‘Ask Me Anything’ thread for a one-hour online chat at midday, followed by our weekly ‘hoon’ webinar from 4pm to 5pm with Peter Bale. See the zoom link for that below the ‘Fun Thing’ under the paywall fold. Paid subscribers also have access to my podcast above, in which I look in more detail at yesterday’s border opening news, and the proposal for a ‘Koru Lounge’ tier of a two-tier welfare system.