The Government has learnt a lot from KiwiBuild's mistakes, the Housing Minister says. Phil Twyford announced 104 new KiwiBuild homes this morning, the first since key targets were dropped last month. Developer Mike Greer is partnering for new builds in Christchurch and West Auckland, and the project will include the cheapest ones yet. Twyford told Larry Williams that they are working on ways to streamline the process and make it easier for first home buyers. Amongst those plans is the likelihood of removing the ballot system unless there is huge demand, but now they will be sold by real estate agents now. He denies that it was "policy on the hoof", as it has been planned for five years. The issues come from the scale of their intentions. "The thing is, no Government has tried to do what we're trying to do in the last 40 years. We're intervening in the market to get more affordable homes built. We're working directly with builders to get those homes built. "I know we've had some teething issues and I wish we had got some better numbers happening, but we're constantly refining and proofing." Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank warned that KiwiBuild is crowding out the market. Twyford says the Government accepts their analysis about the lack of capacity. "The construction industry's operating at quite low levels of productivity, there's a shortage of buildable land, and council's don't have the balance sheets to borrow the money to build the infrastructure to turn farmland into housing." Twyford says they are addressing all those issues, but it won't take overnight." He says the Government is strong in its commitment to housing people in need. Twyford says that the market has not been building enough houses. Mike Greer admitted this morning that KiwiBuild has made it possible, Twyford says. Another issue worrying the minister is the 10,000-long wait list for social housing would decrease. Twyford says people are coming forward in big numbers to get help, and the Government is doing their best to help them. "We've always been of the view that this thing will get worse for some time before it gets better." He says they've put 3,000 more families into short-term emergency housing, and have turned around the decline in public housing. "What I can predict with utter certainty is our Government will continue to build KiwiBuild affordable homes, to build more state housing, to build more emergency housing, and to invest in the services the most vulnerable people need." Twyford says that this housing crisis was allowed to spin out for over a decade, and while they are pulling out all the stops to fix it, but they can't fix it overnight. He denies that they are constantly blaming National, but rather that this crisis was "allowed to get out of control", and National has only accepted it is a housing crisis after they left government. "You can't expect us to turn around the ocean liner and fix a housing crisis in a little over a year."
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