Landlords not picking up windfall
Two letters to the Herald recently said that accommodation allowances should not form part of a tenant’s income and should be removed to reduce rental prices.
The writers mistakenly believe that the allowance is paid directly to rental property providers, but it is in fact paid directly to the tenant to spend on anything they like. Landlords do not know if their tenants receive the accommodation supplement unless their tenants tell them.
The accommodation allowance is not some kind of windfall for landlords that allows them to increase the rent. The accommodation supplement is provided to tenants to help them secure decent and appropriate accommodation.
Removing the accommodation allowance would not reduce the high cost of providing a rental property. All it would do is reduce the recipients’ income and force them into inferior accommodation.
Calls to reduce tenants’ incomes are misguided and heartless.
Andrew King, executive officer, New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation.
Cloud-cuckoo land
Some of your correspondents are suggesting that the Government should remove the accommodation supplement in the belief that this would reduce rents.
As a landlord, I think that this is a great idea — provided of course that similar logic is applied to other payments.
Unemployment benefits should be cut back so that supermarkets have to reduce food prices or risk having it sitting unsold on the shelf, and old age pensions need to be reduced with the expectation that vendors of spectacles and dentures would also have to meet the lower-income market. Welcome to cloud-cuckoo land.
Peter Lewis, Forrest Hill.
Only way to travel
My daughter travels to and fro from Kawakawa Bay to the museum five days a week, leaving for work just before 7am. She used to take the train from Papakura to Newmarket, then walk to the museum, a journey that took two hours. She has now discovered that by leaving at 5.30am and driving directly to the museum she can make the journey in one hour and 10 minutes, a saving of 50 minutes.
She is not alone. The 5.30am start to avoid public transport is a pattern emerging in Australia’s major cities. It also illustrates that if you are commuting from Papakura to the CBD and you add waiting times at the station and the walking time to your place of work, the direct route by car (provided the motorway is not congested) will beat the train hands down every time. The Auckland Council who were voted in to provide commuters with the fastest, least congested and most efficient transport system is doing the exact opposite. Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Monetary failings
Your correspondent Susan Grimsdell argues that the accommodation allowance is a “disgraceful government benefit to owners of rental properties” because it “only passes through [the tenant’s hands straight into the hands of her landlord”. I would argue it passes from the Government through the hands of both the tenant and landlord straight to the bank. Interest costs are the largest expense for most landlords. Landlords typically borrow as much as possible from banks to maximise their return on capital, with the holy grail being 100 per cent. Banks loan as much as possible on houses to maximise their profits.
As NZ flounders trying to house our population, there is insufficient supply and therefore “too much money chasing too few houses” causes massive house price inflation. Adopting “Positive Money” solutions such as “Sovereign Money” would ultimately eliminate the need for the accommodation allowance and address poverty and inequality as well.
Casting landlords or banks as villains disguises a root cause of the problem: a monetary system that works against the common man. Cliff Hall, Blockhouse Bay.
Concert backing
The LifePod concert backers seem to have an excellent PR machine. The Herald and other publications are blithely reporting that 91 per cent of Aucklanders now support the concert. This is a big increase compared to the Herald’s reporting a few days ago when the sample surveyed was a mere 1000 Aucklanders. Maybe some fact checking is needed. In the meantime let those who live nearest the park have the say on whether the concert should go ahead and in doing so crack open the door to further events. They are the ones who will be most affected.
Claire Parkinson, Remuera.
Rosy view challenged
The Employers and Manufacturers Association’s recent full-page advertisement claiming New Zealand has one of the fastest economic growth rates and lowest unemployment in the OECD cannot go unchallenged.
No reference was made to very high population growth (through immigration) cancelling out gains accruing from that economic growth. Hence low, unchanged per capita income or standard of living.
Employment statistics disclose nothing about the quality of jobs people hold. Mucking out backpacker hostels an hour a day on minimum wage qualifies as a job. Hence the new working poor or precariat. All the OECD nations are highincome nations. New Zealand remains an underdeveloped, low-income, low-wage nation.
Proper economic data such as real per capita income growth, the median wage, household disposable income and wealth and income inequality amply confirm our economic decline (and societal disintegration) continues apace.
John H. Gascoigne, Cambridge.
London grocery shopping
I have just returned from a trip to London and was interested in comparing the price of basic kitchen essentials between Auckland and London. The prices quoted reflect “normal” brands, as opposed to supermarkets’ “own” brands. Auckland prices are in brackets and with the exchange rate at roughly £1 = $2, it is easy to see who is getting the better deal.
In London I shopped at Tesco, in Auckland at New World. It’s clear to see what real competition can do between rival chains: dozen large free-range eggs £2.25 ($7), yoghurt 500g £1.50 ($6), 80 decaf tea bags £1.58 ($6), 1.1 litre semiskimmed milk £0.80 (Akl 1 litre $2.86), 100 per cent pure orange juice £1.21 ($4.99), Marmite 150g £2.52 (Akl Our Mate 125g $5.59), butter/canola oil spread 250g £1.84 ($7.60). Mike Young, Riverhead.
Billions up in smoke
It amazes me that the Government is worried about the several millions of dollars in tax they will lose with illegal smuggling of tobacco products. I would be more worried about the $1.8 billion they are now collecting through this tax disappearing when we are smoke-free. Imagine taking that amount out of the health budget and with the next generation living longer in this smoke-free environment the pressure on the pension is going to be horrendous. Have a healthy environment and go broke or an unhealthy one and survive.
Peter Grant, Whitianga.
Teaching hurdles
There is a supply and demand crisis in the teaching profession. Relieving teachers are few and far between. Having been a teacher a long time, I took a break. I maintained my registration in a different category, not full registration. My registration expired.
Trying to renew it is ridiculously hard. One has to write a statement and provide evidence on how full registration will be acquired. I don‘t want full-time work again, I want relieving work. I can’t do that without going through hoops and effort to maintain my practising certificate. I gave up and no doubt many others have too. Remove the red tape. Don’t shut us out, you need us!
Sharon Jameson, Cambridge.
Trucking frustration
Why is it that truck drivers, especially ones clad in high-vis outfits driving H-rated semi-trailers, seem obsessed with using the right-hand lane — the so-called fast lane — of Auckland’s motorways?
Every day I see these hulking, dieselpowered beasts frustratingly hogging the length of an 18-wheeler, plus up to 100 metres in front for good measure, when it is clear they cannot keep up with the 100km/h speed limit most other road users adhere to.
It is also frustrating when they pass into this right-hand lane within the Central Motorway Junction (CMJ). This not only slows following road users seconds later once they leave the CMJ and on to the Southern Motorway, it also encourages those same users to weave around them.
Kiran Budhia, Waterview.