Housing crisis no joke for Mt Albert voters

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New Mount Albert MP Jacinda Ardern says the Prime Minister is making light of what was the most serious problem on the minds of voters in the weekend's by-election.

The Labour list MP won exactly 10,000 votes in the interim count to take the safe Labour set, which was vacant because of the resignation of David Shearer to work for the United Nations.

She says 40 percent of households in the electorate are renting and it's the seventh least affordable electorate to buy a home.

Bill English has blamed council environmental controls for slowing housing development.

"Asked whether it was a crisis he basically said no, said it was a supply and demand issue and that was a good problem to have. Anyone who is not in a house … just last week met a young man who had lost his job and was living in his car. Days before that another young man who had his rent increased by 20 percent. None of those individuals think this is a good problem to have," Ms Ardern says.

FULL INTERVIEW WITH JACINDA ARDERN

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