Social housing reforms ‘a body blow’ for the poorest - Labour

Thursday, 21 May 2026

Opposition parties have resoundingly rejected the Government’s claims that social housing reforms would create a fairer system, saying they will hurt – not help – the most vulnerable.

Social housing tenants will pay higher rents from April 2027 as Cabinet mulls tougher rules relating to tenancy durations and responsibilities.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop has pitched the sweeping reforms as a necessary step to recalibrate a system that incentivises people who could otherwise afford a private rental to stay in a state house, while those with higher needs languish on the wait list.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has characterised the changes as “cruel” and said higher rents in a cost of living crisis will only make life harder for many low-income families.

“They already can't make their ends meet. This is going to be an absolute body blow to people who already can't keep their head above water.”

Read more:

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The Government is hiking the minimum Income-Related Rent (IRR) contribution from 25% to 30% of a social housing tenant’s income from April 1, 2027 - meaning around 84,000 households will pay an extra $31 per week.

The change is expected to save $387.5 million that will be re-invested into higher Accommodation Supplement (AS) rates - lifting these by between $10 and $30 per week.

The coalition is also creating a new social housing needs assessment with a greater emphasis on barriers rather than affordability, while it considers tougher rules for tenants like defined tenancy durations and regular eligibility reviews.

Hipkins has pushed back on suggestions social housing assessments need to be stricter, saying it was already hard enough to get into homes.

“Through my electorate office, I deal with people regularly who are in really, really difficult circumstances, they're in dire straits, and they can't get into social housing because the criteria is already so tough to meet.”

While he wouldn’t say what Labour would do with the reforms until after the Budget, Hipkins said his party would invest more in public housing.

“Fundamentally, this is an ideological decision by this government. They don't like publicly owned housing, they'd rather it was all done by the private sector and now they're trying to tilt the playing field in that direction.”

The Green Party’s Tamatha Paul said the coalition’s reforms were “looking for cost savings from the most vulnerable, poor people in New Zealand”.

“It’s disgusting,” she said.

Paul said social housing should be for anyone that needed it, not just those with the highest needs.

“The Government thinks that [social housing] should only be for the most needy people in New Zealand. Our approach, and the approach of many other developed cities with better housing affordability than our own, is that public housing should be for everybody that needs it and if that means you're in it for your entire life then so be it.”

The ACT Party’s Cameron Luxton has welcomed the changes as a levelling of the playing field that shifted support to low-income private renters who live in social housing.

'A household in social housing has on average $105 a week more left over after housing costs than a comparable family renting privately. Frankly, that is not fair.“

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was less forthcoming with his thoughts on the reforms, telling reporters they should speak to the Housing Minister before agreeing with Bishop’s comment the status quo was unfair and unsustainable.

“We've got to do a whole lot better than that. We used to be one of the greatest property-owning democracies in the world.

“That's a sliding standard that we've not met for a long, long time, and we want to turn that around, and that's why the 7th of November is a critical election for New Zealand.”