Housing will be the biggest issue of the 2023 general election, says ACT Party leader David Seymour.
“Because the problem hasn't been solved and nothing that National or Labour are doing will solve it,” the Epsom MP told Stuff after speaking at a Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce gathering in Nelson on Friday.
“In fact, they may make it worse.”
The ACT leader said Kāinga Ora was “borrowing money against the taxpayer to bid against private developers to buy the same land”.
“They're actually bidding the price up,” Seymour said. “I mean, how crazy is this.”
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Braden Fastier/Stuff
ACT leader David Seymour speaks at a Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce lunchtime gathering in Nelson.
Rising house prices did not augur well for young people. If house prices rose by $200,000 over two years, a would-be buyer would need to save $40,000 for that portion of a 20 per cent deposit. After tax and rent, that would be tough, even for a couple.
“Even if they save that much, they've still just kept up with where they were; they haven't actually added to their deposit,” Seymour said. “If we say to a generation of people: ‘You won't have your own place here’, don't be surprised if they either leave or start voting for people who will [ferment] some sort of revolution.”
The focus for ACT would be on resource management law, infrastructure funding and building inspections.
“Nobody would trust a council to check on aircraft safety so why do we have them checking if buildings have been built properly,” Seymour said. “We need a much better way of doing inspections.”
Braden Fastier/Stuff
David Seymour, pictured with the Nelson City Council building behind him, says councils should keep the three waters services.
If builders could get a quality assurance “guaranteed for 20 years, that's good enough – you don't have to have a council inspection”.
To help fund infrastructure, ACT proposed that 50 per cent of GST revenue from residential construction should go to the local council, not central government. Not only would it provide local government with “a lot more money” to fund infrastructure, it would also change councils’ incentives.
“Right now, the only time that you get prompt service from your council is when they're issuing a parking ticket ... and the reason is there's revenue attached to giving you a piece of paper,” Seymour said. “If they got revenue every time they issued a building consent, you can imagine they'd be all over you trying to consent things.”
At its best, local government provided services that couldn’t be done privately, including the Three Waters.
“No-one else can provide a network of sewers in Nelson,” he said. “Local government doesn't need to put on concerts.”
Seymour said the Three Waters assets should be retained by councils with the option of entering into voluntary shared services agreements with their neighbours.
Braden Fastier/Stuff
David Seymour says young people may leave New Zealand if they can't get secure housing.
Such an agreement between councils at the top of the South Island might work better for the region – or it might not.
“What’s important is that people who live locally and understand the landscape are involved in the decision,” Seymour said.
He said it was not a surprise that the 1News Colmar Brunton poll this week showed that Labour had started “to lose ground because as soon as they abandoned elimination [of Covid-19], they didn't have an alternative”.
“They weren't prepared,” Seymour said. “For the first time, people can see that things aren't going well, and it's their fault and that's obviously going to erode confidence in their response.”
ACT’s focus until the election was “mainly holding the current Government accountable, particularly all the pressure that they're putting on people when it comes to cost of living”, he said.
ACT leader tips housing to be top topic of 2023 election - Stuff.co.nz
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