Andrew Little has an excellent piece on Stuff this morning:
Andrew Little: Time for excuses over, time to build houses
It’s official: the average Auckland house price has doubled since the Key Government came to power. In December 2008, the average house cost $496,000. Now it’s an astounding $992,000.
As house prices have skyrocketed, wages have stagnated. The share of the economy going to working families has fallen by an average of $50 a week under National. Auckland house prices have risen more than four times faster than incomes.
Getting together a deposit has become impossible for young families; their goal is moving away as fast as they can save. The homeownership rate of under-40s has halved in a generation. The Kiwi dream of owning your own home is slipping away.
It’s clear that National has no answers. Seventy-five per cent of Kiwis say National is failing to fix the housing crisis. Meanwhile, John Key can’t even bring himself to admit there is a crisis. While this Prime Minister buries his head in the sand, families are facing a lifetime of renting, and a housing bubble is building up that threatens to burst and damage the wider economy.
So, what’s the solution? We’ve got to stabilise house prices and lift wages. There’s no silver bullet; it takes a set of bold policies.
Labour’s comprehensive housing plan is all about building affordable houses and cracking down on speculators, while helping the families most in need: ….
See the full piece on Stuff for a list of Labour’s policies.
John Key will give you all the excuses you can stomach for his failure to stabilise house prices and boost incomes but the truth is clear: if we want to change the path we’re on, we need to change the government.
We need a government that will stop making excuses and start building affordable houses.
Only Labour has the plan and the resolve to restore the Kiwi dream of owning your own home.
Meanwhile National is faffing about with crucial issues like lost luggage.
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