The last of the KiwiBuild targets has been dropped.
The Ministry in charge of the Government's flagship housing programme is now calling its one-year anniversary targets an "artificial deadline" and it looks almost certain to fail to build 300 homes by then.
When asked how many KiwiBuild houses will be built by the June 30 deadline, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: "I couldn't give you a number specifically for June 30."
The first annual target had already failed. It was supposed to be 1000 Kiwibuild homes in a year - slashed to just 300 in January.
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"We've got about 300 homes that are either completed or contracted to be completed," Housing Minister Phil Twyford said at the time.
But when asked to confirm that, Ardern said on Monday: "I just couldn't tell you that."
Twyford was confident the target would be met just over a month ago. He told Newshub: "My advice is that we're well on track to meet the 300."
But on Monday, the Prime Minister denied that the end of the first year of KiwiBuild was ever a target.
"We never had targets for those dates."
Newshub asked the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for an update on exactly how many homes would be completed by the end of the first year of KiwiBuild.
They said there was no June 30 target and they want KiwiBuild partners to focus on safety and quality, not an "artificial date".
National's housing spokesperson Judith Collins laughed at the response, and said the KiwiBuild programme is "like an artificial policy too".
The Ministry told Newshub there are 378 KiwiBuild homes under construction, expected to be completed anywhere between now and the end of this year.
The Prime Minister was asked on Monday how people are supposed to have confidence in KiwiBuild if it can't deliver 300 homes within the first year.
She replied: "There are currently 400 under construction."
The KiwiBuild website says there are 83 homes completed with just 34 days until the programme's first birthday.
The Ministry will have to build six and a half houses every single day - working through all the weekends - to get to 300 within a year.
Newshub.
