Bill English has accused Labour of fudging the numbers on its pledge to build 100,000 affordable homes over the next decade, saying the figure actually includes 35,000 homes his government commissioned.
Addressing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in question time today, the National leader asked Jacinda Ardern if this 100,000 target was "over-and-above" the homes already delivered by his National government - in areas such as Ms Ardern's own Mount Albert electorate.
The Prime Ministers response was brief.
"If they'd already been delivered people would be living in them," Ms Ardern responded to chuckles from her side of the house.
Mr English persisted.
"So can the Prime Minister therefore confirm the 100,000 affordable homes is over and above the existing program of 35,000 new builds by Housing NZ, and therefore she will need to make sure the government builds 135,000 homes in order to reach the target?" Mr English asked.
Ms Ardern then went onto clarify their 100,000 homes target was including already commissioned homes they would be facilitating to be built, that had been prevented by market factors, and would not have been built without the Labour-led Government's help.
"I'm happy to speak to some of the specific examples in my electorate where that building program had not been delivered because some of the houses were meant to be at market value and the interest wasn't there and they weren't built," Ms Ardern said.
"What we've committed to doing is building 100,000 affordable homes that would not be otherwise built without the government's intervention."
Further pressed on the same point by Mr English, the Prime Minister insisted.
"Kiwibuild homes are affordable homes that would not have been built had it not been for the intervention of the government," Ms Ardern said.
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