Labour, housing group slam state house change

The Government says it will introduce reviewable tenancies for new State tenants and ask community organisations to help with providing more housing, as it struggles with waiting lists for state houses.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley has today confirmed Cabinet's acceptance of key recommendations made by the Housing Shareholders Advisory Group (HSAG), but Labour said National was just trying to get community organisations to do its job.

Mr Heatley said Cabinet had agreed to bring in reviewable tenancies for all new state housing tenants from July 1 next year.

The changes would not adversely affect current, elderly or infirm tenants, he said.

Providing good quality state housing to those most in need, for the duration of that need, was the main driver behind the changes, he said.

Community organisations like the Housing Foundation, Salvation Army, Comcare, IHC and VisionWest had already demonstrated they can successfully provide housing including specialist housing for the elderly and disabled.

"The concept of the state providing a guaranteed state home for life, regardless of improvements in the personal circumstances of tenants, is no longer sustainable or desirable," he said.

Despite record levels of Government investment waiting lists in high demand areas continue to grow, he said.

"We need to focus HNZC efforts on looking after tenants in need. To do this we need to allow them to move tenants who no longer need support out of a state house. They also need to be able to address the under-utilisation of properties. It is not right that a single person lives in a four or five-bedroom home, while families of six or more live in garages."

But Housing Lobby spokeswoman Sue Henry said her group, which had been lobbying for tenants since 1987, was "disgusted" by the plans.

"The impact of it will be a lot of instability for the tenants... it's just shocking what's happened today."

The shortfall of housing only existed because National had sold off so many of the houses in the 1990s, Ms Henry said.

"It's like chopping people's legs off and telling them to walk. We saw the dislocation in the 90s what that did to people. The instability it caused families, with children enrolled in five or six different schools a year."

Labour's housing spokeswoman Moana Mackey said the Government response to the HSAG report lacked detail and deliberately avoided the hard issues.

Labour agreed the community housing sector was in a good position to work alongside the state in building new neighbourhoods but she said National was trying to absolve itself from its responsibilities in social housing.

It was expecting community groups to do the Government's job, she said.

Ms Mackey said that plans to introduce fixed term tenancies for state house tenants would not do anything to address the housing shortage.

They also ignored the impact on children and families, she said.

"Given the well documented negative impacts of transience on educational achievement, Labour believes that families with kids attending local schools should be exempted from the Government's reviewable tenancy scheme."