When ‘going for housing growth’ means stopping building

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

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When ‘going for housing growth’ means stopping building

Kāinga Ora cuts plans for 50 new homes after Bishop bans KO building extra homes from mid-2025; Govt cuts $2b from school building plan to pay for tax cuts; '14 layers of bureaucracy' claim debunked

Jul 28, 2024

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Any building projects currently underway will continue, but Kāinga Ora has put projects due to be completed after mid-2025 on hold pending re-assessment. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:

Kāinga Ora has abandoned plans to build 50 new homes in Ruakaka in Northland because Housing Minister Chris Bishop has told the state house builder and manager not to add any extra housing supply after July next year, even though 1,266 families are registered as homeless there and Northland’s population has risen 8.3% in the last five years;
The Ministry of Education has confirmed only 252 of its 352 school building projects started under the previous Labour Government would go ahead after a financial review that found $2 billion of savings to help pay for this year’s tax cuts;
Investigations of the Government’s claims that Te Whatu Ora had 14 layers of management and it was spending more on methane emissions research found they were simply wrong;
The Reserve Bank could help increase housing supply in the middle of our biggest cities by easing capital rules that stop banks from lending to developers converting office blocks into flats for residents;
In quote of the day, a climate refugee at Port Waikato speaks out after another two metres of cliff fell into the sea; and,
In climate graphic of the day, the Rocky Mountain Institute has released a major report showing the pathway to much-more-fully recycling battery minerals.

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