Budget 2023: Confidence in delivery

As the lead agency responsible for providing public housing for those in need, Kāinga Ora will deliver some of the extra 3,000 public homes by June 2025, as announced in the Government’s Budget today. Community Housing Providers, including Māori and iwi partners, will also be providing some of these homes and this mahi will be outlined by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in a refreshed Public Housing Plan 2021-2024.

Kāinga Ora Board Chair, Vui Mark Gosche said today’s announcement reinforces the mandate from Government that Kāinga Ora has to increase housing supply.

“We will continue to deliver homes to meet the growing demand, and we have a significant role to play in the Government’s long-term housing outcomes.” said Vui.

Despite the challenges faced by the construction sector, Kāinga Ora continues to increase the supply of much needed warm, dry, quality public housing.

“We have delivered nearly 9,000 newly built public homes in recent years, and we have 6,672 contracted and under construction. We are moving at pace, with our build partners, to increase public housing numbers to provide the stable housing that an increasing number of New Zealanders and their whānau need.

A stable home means childhoods are not spent moving from one property and school to another. It means support, security, access to jobs and improved wellbeing.

We also have a legislative requirement to provide leadership and transformation to the construction industry. Getting these elements right is critical for New Zealand and New Zealanders.” said Vui.

Kāinga Ora has delivered the largest number of newly built public houses in over 20 years and acknowledges there is more to do. It will spend around $35 billion over 20 years on construction activity.

“At the same time, we will commit to effective and efficient use of Budget funding while prioritising our activities to ensure that our work programme remains both achievable and affordable.

Our challenge in this current environment is to continue to focus on what we need to achieve, as well as being mindful of the context that we are working in. The cost of building is increasing and our build partners face their own challenges with labour shortages, supply chain issues and tighter timeframes. We need to support them in a partnership that makes the most of the resources we have.

While improving the efficiency and effectiveness of residential construction in New Zealand, we are also focussing on our own performance. We are working with Treasury and the Ministry for Housing and Urban Development, to align our financing and funding arrangements so we can continue our important role of improving the lives of New Zealanders.” he said.

Background

Read the Government’s Budget announcement on beehive.govt.nz(external link)

Further information can be found on Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga Ministry of Housing and Urban Development(external link) website

Kāinga Ora and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have complementary and interdependent roles. Kāinga Ora is the Government’s primary housing and urban development delivery arm. We are focused on providing state housing principally for those most in need, along with initiating or undertaking urban development.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 guides the work of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, other agencies such as community housing providers (CHPs) and the wider housing sector to achieve the Government’s goal of increasing the supply of public housing, transitional housing and services to tackle homelessness.