I’ve always been sceptical that KiwiBuild could deliver on its promises to deliver so many homes so quickly. My father and grandfather were both in the building industry and it’s never as simple as nailing some planks together.
There were a lot of big promises, especially during the 2017 election. But there was very little details of how it would work and we’ve seen this unravel over the past year. Affordability, volumes, locations and process - the details on these have all shifted as reality set in. Some of this is how it was reported by the media but Labour did very little to correct the misunderstandings.
For those of us wanting solutions to the lack of housing, I was hoping that Phil Twyford would pull something out of the bag, somehow stand up an entire construction industry and deliver hundreds of homes in a short timeframe.
But realistically I doubted it would happen.
The government needs to admit they were woefully under prepared for the challenge they set themselves and reset expectations. They need to admit that it’s not an easy task and work with the wider construction industry to address the problems within KiwiBuild but also general building industry.
It's arrogant to think that government ministers can sweep in and solve the problems without properly engaging with those in the industry.
We (UnitedFuture) campaigned for government to work with the industry to address the issues, not attempt to steamroll over them. Perhaps the government will consider this now