August 30, 2023
Land key to Māori housing plan
National’s Māori development kaikōrero Tama Potaka says the party has a good track record in delivering homes to whānau.
He says the Land For Housing programme, launched in 2014 to identify pockets of public land in Tāmaki Makaurau which could be suitable for development by the private sector, has been working well.
Because most of the land identified was subject to treaty claims once it was declared surplus, the developments have mainly been done in joint ventures with iwi, including Ngai Tai ki Tamaki which Mr Potaka worked for before entering parliament.
“Nick Smith and others launched that kaupapa, under the Bill English-John Key Government and that programme has stood the test of time and activated hundreds of houses in Tāmaki Makaurau and that’s the type of targeted support we’d like to stick to going forward,” he says.