Finance Minister Grant Robertson doesn't believe scaling back KiwiBuild's target of 100,000 homes in 10 years is necessary despite a series of recent setbacks.
Last week, Housing Minister Phil Twyford announced the Government's flagship housing scheme would not hit its target of 1000 homes by July and he was only confident 300 houses would be built.
- Phil Twyford, Grant Robertson out of sync on KiwiBuild 10-year target
- KiwiBuild houses might not end up with first-home buyers
- Replacing KiwiBuild boss no easy task - property commentator
Mr Robertson earlier said the Government may look at "recalibrating" the expectations for the scheme, but that doesn't appear to include the overall target of 100,000 homes in 10 years as he told The AM Show on Tuesday.
"No, I don't think so. Because it is a ten year programme, and we are just in the first year of a ten year programme, so I don't think there is any need to scale the overall commitment back," he said.
Mr Robertson also admitted the second year target for KiwiBuild may be under threat.
"Obviously if we are not meeting the first year target, that has an impact as we go out. But this will ramp up over time, it is a matter of making sure we get past some of the blockages that have obviously emerged in this first year," he said.
"Let's take a look at how we manage [the targets] over the next one, two, three years, and that's the recalibration I am talking about."
The scheme also faces the issue of currently having no boss, after Stephen Barclay resigned from the role on January 18 amidst complaints of poor leadership behaviour.
Although Mr Robertson couldn't go into detail about Mr Barclay's departure while an investigation into the complaints is underway, he doesn't believe it will impact the programme's rollout, noting that there is still a large number of people working on the scheme.
"The programme goes on, regardless of Mr Barclay's participation."
"It is still important that people are able to move into affordable homes. We still face the situation they are not being developed unless the government is a part of the picture."
Newshub.
