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Speaker 1: So change is rolling on at going aura. We've got

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Speaker 1: a letter of expectation from the Housing Minister. Our financial

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Speaker 1: stability is the top priority. And further enhancing that is

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Speaker 1: an announcement coming today more land availability around the country

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Speaker 1: to build more houses at a cheaper price. Housing Minister

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Speaker 1: Chris Bishop with us good morning, Good morning reportages. This morning,

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Speaker 1: you are going to quote unquote flood the country with

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Speaker 1: land in today's announcement. That's true.

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Speaker 2: We're going to let cities grow. It's really important. We've

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Speaker 2: got a housing crisis. We need to allow our cities

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Speaker 2: to throw. We need to get rid of the Aukland

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Speaker 2: metropolitan urban limit. Let auck can grow out at the fringe,

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Speaker 2: but also do sensible density around transit corridors and around

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Speaker 2: our train stations. More apartments by train stations, more mixture

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Speaker 2: sowning that our cities grow and get on top of

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Speaker 2: this multi generational problem of housing and affordablyity.

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Speaker 1: You've got council buy in.

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Speaker 3: Well, the councils have got to follow the rules set

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Speaker 3: by central government. I think most councils will be on

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Speaker 3: board with it. I think it'll be a bit spicy

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Speaker 3: with a few of them, but we will just work

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Speaker 3: our way through that in good time.

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Speaker 1: And when you say, Spice, what are you going to do,

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Speaker 1: just tell them what to do. It is what it is,

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Speaker 1: get on with it.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's that's the way the rules. Already there's a

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Speaker 2: thing called the National Policy State of an Even Development

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Speaker 2: which sets the rules of the game to councils and

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Speaker 2: differents to housing. That was introduced by the last government.

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Speaker 2: So we're building on that and so we'll just work

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Speaker 2: our way through it with them.

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Speaker 1: Is this mainly metropolitan rural New Zealand. Provincial New Zealand

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Speaker 1: doesn't really need to worry about any of this because

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Speaker 1: it's not really a problem for them or not.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what we call Tier one and two cities, so Auckland, Wellington,

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Speaker 2: christ Church, Hamilton, Toronto. We're not talking about provincial and

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Speaker 2: regional and rural councils. You know they've they've got growth

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Speaker 2: ambitions as well, but we're really talking about our big cities.

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Speaker 1: Where does Kaying Aura fit into this.

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Speaker 2: Well, ki Aura is a financially troubled organization. As a government,

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Speaker 2: we've made it a real priority to get that under control.

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Speaker 2: It's a forty five billion dollar company, very important institution,

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Speaker 2: for the Crown as we put in place a new

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Speaker 2: chair in Simon Meuta and we've just replaced and refreshed

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Speaker 2: the board. We've got five new board members have started there,

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Speaker 2: and Nicol Laisni made it's very clear to them that

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Speaker 2: we want them to eliminate losses, cut their costs and

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Speaker 2: get back to their core business, which is actually being

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Speaker 2: a landlord for often quite vulnerable people and maintaining a

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Speaker 2: state housing stock that is in some cases very old

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Speaker 2: and in a very bad state.

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Speaker 1: Yes. Counter argument to that is we need more houses

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Speaker 1: and they're not building them or won't be building as many,

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Speaker 1: and who fills that gap, Well.

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Speaker 2: We'll be building social houses. Kind of AURA will build

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Speaker 2: around three thousand social houses in the next year alone,

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Speaker 2: for example, and we've funded fifteen hundred new social housing

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Speaker 2: places from twenty twenty five onwards via the community housing sector.

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Speaker 2: And once we've got a turnaround plan in place with

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Speaker 2: kind of AURA, we may well put more money into

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Speaker 2: KO for them to build more state houses, but we're

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Speaker 2: not going to do that. It would be irresponsible to

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Speaker 2: give them a blank check to build more houses until

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Speaker 2: we're confident they've got their costs under control and they're

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Speaker 2: financially sustainable as an organization.

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Speaker 1: So that's what we're doing, and what's the turnaround time

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Speaker 1: and allers.

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Speaker 2: Waiting for a plan from them by November this year

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Speaker 2: and we'll make decisions after that.

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Speaker 1: And how much of this is about building houses not

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Speaker 1: incurring debt, or how much of it's about them not

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Speaker 1: being bastards of landlords, never evicting anybody and having gang

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Speaker 1: members traumatize people.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's a bit of everything, to be honest. I mean,

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Speaker 2: they need to be a better landlord. We've made that

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Speaker 2: very clear. We're actually seeing a few green shirts have

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Speaker 2: changed there. Don't want to get too excited about it,

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Speaker 2: but we are seeing some good numbers coming through. So

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Speaker 2: they do need to be a better landlord. They need

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Speaker 2: to look after their tenants well, and they do need

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Speaker 2: to maintain their properties properly, and they need to cut

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Speaker 2: their costs. Let's get rid of the sort of bespoke

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Speaker 2: designs to get some architects all over the place. At

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Speaker 2: the end of the day, we're just building good quality

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Speaker 2: state houses. They don't have to be mentioned. They just

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Speaker 2: have to be good quality state houses that often quite

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Speaker 2: vulnerable where people can have as a hope.

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Speaker 1: I got a text the other day from a builder

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Speaker 1: who was claiming the average bill price in this country

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Speaker 1: is about four and a half thousand dollars a square

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Speaker 1: meter coying or seven a half thousand. Do you know

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Speaker 1: if that's true or not.

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Speaker 2: It could possibly be true. It is definitely the fact

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Speaker 2: that kinnel Or has engaged in some very expensive developments

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Speaker 2: that I've been pretty worried about, and so we've made

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Speaker 2: it clear to the board, cut your costs, focus on

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Speaker 2: your call roles and responsibilities, and just deliver good quality,

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Speaker 2: affordable state houses for people who need them.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate time, Chris Bishop, Housing Ministry.

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