Housing Corporation’s stock issue criticised

Press, 30 April 1984, Page 9

Housing Corporation’s stock issue criticised

PA Auckland Housing Corporation loans will be no easier to get, in spite of the Government’s issuing public stock to fund its lending, says Labour’s spokesman on housing, Mr P. B. Goff. The Minister of Housing, Mr Friedlander, said on Thursday that the corporation would make regular issues of public stock instead of relying on Government money. Mr Goff said the move was a case of “fiddling while Rome burns” and would make no difference to the availability of loans to desperate home seekers. It was essentially a technical device motivated by the Treasury to allow the Government to disguise its deficit, he said. What home seekers and the building industry wanted was positive action to raise the level of finance available through the corporation, allied to consistent housing policies, said Mr

Goff. In the last year there had been five changes in lending and all of them had tightened the eligibility for corporation finance, he said. He agreed that the concept of raising housing money through public stock issue was not a bad one, but

assurances were needed that the move would not result in less Government support for home ownership. There was also the danger that private-sector lending could dry up as a result of the competition, or interest rates could be forced up, Mr Goff said.