5. Is your social housing policy exactly the same as National’s and what evidence is there that putting social housing in the hands of private providers works.
Answer
No. With respect to social housing we are proposing to hand over the State Housing stock to approved charitable agencies, not to attempt to sell assets that have a false book value established by taxpayer funds being used both as the tenant subsidy and as the cost of the investment. The reality is that this housing needs to be maintained in a manner that is acceptable. There is plenty of overseas evidence that social housing providers provide a better service to tenants than government providers, at no extra cost.
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