PM not giving up on KiwiBuild

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is not giving up on KiwiBuild and says she still has confidence in her housing minister.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is also backing the housing programme, stating the Government was going to recommit to getting it back on track at the first Cabinet meeting of the year.

Meanwhile, the Opposition says the Government has no chance and should cut its losses.

On Wednesday, Housing Minister Phil Twyford admitted the programme had fallen drastically short of its firstyear target to deliver 1000 homes by July 1.

The Government found it harder to change the behaviour of developers through the Buying Off the Plans scheme than it had expected, Twyford said.

‘‘It’s clear now that we won’t meet our first-year target, and that’s a real disappointment to me.’’

Ardern said housing had always been a complex issue.

‘‘But we are not going to give up . . . we want to do more, we will keep pushing.

‘‘This is not about placing blame on anyone, it’s about acknowledging that a housing crisis is a difficult thing to solve.’’

The Government was still building affordable houses – just not as many or as quickly as it wanted, she said.