GOVT PLAN

WELLINGTON: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is promising to fix New Zealand’s housing crisis and has unveiled new details of her Government’s state housing plan.

It comes as the country’s state house waiting list continues to balloon.

There are now close to 22,500 people on the list.

The Government yesterday released its public housing plan, which identifies where in the country the additional 8000 state and transition houses will go.

Those 8000 homes have already been announced.

It was one of the headlines of last year’s Budget.

The big winners revealed yesterday are Northland, Hamilton, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Napier, Hastings, Palmerston North and Whanganui.

In the Southern region, where the waiting list for housing has reached 505, 150 to 200 public houses will be added.

Up to 30 transitional houses will also be added.

Supply would be targeted towards Dunedin and Invercargill, where housing deprivation was high, the Public Housing Plan said.

It estimated 4% of people experiencing severe housing deprivation in New Zealand lived in the South.

‘‘Fixing the housing crisis is a key focus of this Government,’’ Ms Ardern, who is in Nelson for Labour’s annual retreat, said.

She added the state housing programme played a key part in the Government’s plan.

Of the 8000 homes, 6000 are state housing places and 2000 are transitional housing places.

Ms Ardern said the Government remained on track to deliver more than the previously announced 18,000 extra places by 2024.

The unveiling of where these already announced state houses will be built comes as pressure increases on Ms Ardern’s Government in the housing space.

Greens coleader and Housing Associate Minister Marama Davidson said the growing state housing waiting list needed to be ‘‘urgently addressed’’ by the Government.

‘‘We should be using more of the tools in the toolbox to fix this runaway housing crisis, and that includes taxing wealth or capital gains.’’

Ms Ardern has repeatedly ruled out both taxes.

‘‘We’re frustrated,’’ Ms Davidson admitted.

‘‘We’ve been quite clear, Government is not doing enough if we are not putting all the tools on the table so that people can afford to rent, buy kai for their households, and even own their own homes.’’

National was also critical of the Government’s everexpanding state housing waiting list.

‘‘This is the sad result of Labour’s continued failure to get on top of our housing shortage,’’ National housing spokeswoman Nicola Willis said.

‘‘Despite promises to fix our housing shortage housing has become more unaffordable than ever under Labour with more and more Kiwis are struggling to find a home.’’

Housing Minister Megan Woods blamed the previous National Government for the long waiting list.

‘‘It follows decades of insufficient new housing stock being built and the selling off of thousands of state homes by the previous National Government.’’