Kāinga Ora under-performing, lacking in transparency according to review
Monday, 20 May 2024
Housing Minister Chris Bishop will “refresh” the eight-member Kāinga Ora board and has appointed a new chair after an independent review found the social housing agency was lacking in transparency and had poor understanding of its effect on tenants.
The review, led by former Prime Minister Sir Bill English, made seven recommendations - four of which have already been agreed by Cabinet.
“The review found that Kāinga Ora has had easy access to debt but insufficient focus on fiscal discipline, and low levels of accountability have led to growing annual losses and a deteriorating financial situation,” he said in a statement.
The four recommendations already agreed
Recommendation 4(a): Aligning contractual arrangements across Kāinga Ora and Community Housing Providers (CHPs)
Recommendation 5(a): Refreshing the Kāinga Ora Board
Recommendation 5(b): Issue Simplified Direction to Kāinga Ora
- Recommendation 6: that Ministers set an expectation that the Kāinga Ora Board will develop a credible and detailed plan to improve financial performance with the goal of eliminating losses.
Bishop campaigned on radical reform at the agency, going as far as promising those at a construction conference that a “clean out” was coming, and telling Stuff he hoped people lost their job at as a result.
In March, he instructed Kāinga Ora to stop using its sustaining tenancies framework, a homelessness prevention service, and act more harshly towards those behaving antisocially.
The new board
On Monday, he appointed Simon Moutter as the new Chair of Kāinga Ora, and a refreshed board would be in place by July.
“Mr Moutter has extensive change leadership experience as the Chief Executive at Powerco, Auckland International Airport, and then Spark NZ, where he won the Deloitte Top 200 NZ CEO of the Year in 2017. He will step into the role on June 4,” Bishop said.
“Further consideration of the Board composition is ongoing with a refreshed Board expected to be in place in July. Ministers will then issue a new Letter of Expectations which makes crystal clear our expectations regarding Kāinga Ora’s focus on fiscal sustainability, value for money, and a ‘back to basics’ approach for their essential functions.
“The first task of the refreshed Board will be to present a Kāinga Ora turnaround plan to Ministers by the end of the year, which focuses on returning Kāinga Ora to financial sustainability and eliminating losses.
“The other changes proposed by the review, including moving to a model where the government becomes an active purchaser that takes a social investment approach to cost-effectively improving housing outcomes, will be considered in the coming months. At first blush, the recommendations align with our broader social policy objectives, so we will be looking at them closely, as well as considering broader housing funding settings.”
The review panel also included Ceinwen McNeil and Simon Allen.