Housing NZ forced to correct state house figures

Labour MP Phil Twyford wanted Housing New Zealand to be recalled to Parliament to explain its state housing figures. Photo / George Novak

Housing New Zealand will not be hauled back to Parliament to explain why it provided incorrect figures on how many state houses it is building.

But the corporation has been made to correct the official record of its annual appearance before a select committee meeting yesterday after its executives wrongly stated the scale of its house-building programme.

Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford wrote a letter to the social services committee's acting chair Jo Hayes, of National, to ask for Housing New Zealand to be recalled to correct their statements.

That was rejected by Hayes, but HNZ has been asked to correct the figures for the official record.

Answering questions from the Labour Party yesterday, newly-appointed chief executive Andrew McKenzie said 4900 state houses would be built in Auckland over the next three years. The net increase would be 722, he said, because of the sale or demolition of older state houses.

However, a HNZ spokeswoman later said those figures were incorrect. HNZ would actually build 3900 state houses in Auckland, and the total stock would increase by 1400 once sales and demolitions were taken into account.

The 4900 figure was a national figure, the spokeswoman said.

Social Housing Minister Amy Adams' office noted that community housing providers would add another 857 social housing places over the same period. That meant the social housing stock would swell by 2250 houses by 2020.