Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill

I move, That the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill be now read a second time.

It’s been my very great honour to bring this bill to the House. The Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust is an organisation that has done a huge amount of good work in Christchurch. It homes over 20,000 people in affordable and social housing. It is a community housing provider that is seeking to expand. Now, the reason we’re here is one that is often told in this House when private bills are brought. It’s trust deeds that are very specific that can only be amended by statute.

Now, I would like to put out there that the ŌCHT—the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust—tried every effort they could to change their trust deed before resorting to legislative change; before coming here. But their reason for needing their trust deed change is very simple: their ability to provide social and affordable housing is geographically limited to Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula. ŌCHT is one of our more established community housing providers in New Zealand. They want the ability to expand beyond the confines of Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula. They can look just outside of their boundary, and they can see that there is a need for community and social housing within the districts of Kaiapoi, which lies within the Waimakariri District Council zone, and they simply cannot operate out there. They can look to Ashburton, but then they can look further afield, across the South Island, and indeed across the country. So that geographical limitation is the change that is being sought through this legislation.

I would like to put on record my acknowledgment of the work of the trust, led by Kate and her team in Christchurch that do a phenomenal job, and thank them very much for that work. I’d also like to thank the Social Services and Community Committee that examined this bill. I think there were nine submissions on this bill, so it wasn’t one that attracted an avalanche of attention and submissions. I think seven of the nine submissions were in favour of it.

One of the things that I would like to acknowledge the work that the committee put in was around the winding up clause. What would happen in terms of the assets if the trust does wind up? Given that it is not just going to be within the confines of Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula, where would those assets belong? So, for example, if 10 houses were built in Ashburton and the trust was wound up, who would ultimately have ownership of them? Would they revert back to Christchurch City and to the city council, who is ultimately the owner of the trust? Or would there be a need for there to be another provision for how those assets could be retained in Ashburton for the intent that they were put there? The committee did put quite a lot of thought into this and has suggested some changes to the bill as it’s reported back to the House, in this, its second reading. I think they are sensible changes. They certainly are changes that reflect the intent of what the trust wanted, and that was to ensure that any assets, should the trust have to be wound up, would lie with the community in which they were intended to lie. I think anyone can see that that is a very sensible and pragmatic way of going through this.

No other changes were made to the bill, and I think that reflects the fact that this is a very sensible request from ŌCHT, the ability for them to operate beyond their boundaries because they are doing such a good job. One of the things I think it is important to note that is Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust, established when Christchurch city needed to transfer its assets into a housing trust, was first in the business of providing social housing. This was housing that attracted the income-related rent subsidy and were let out to tenants in that way. It still does that job, and it still does that job very well. But the trust is looking to innovate. Projects that were started when we were in Government—they’ve done some very mixed developments where you’ll have the housing that attracts the income-related rent subsidy but also offers shared equity ways into housing for people.

I think the ability of them to expand themselves, beyond the confines of a very small geographical space of Christchurch and Banks Peninsula, is something we should celebrate. I am very proud to have sponsored this change by the trust, and I look forward to watching what they can do in other parts of New Zealand that they’ve achieved for the people of Christchurch. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise as the chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee, and member of Parliament, to speak on the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill, a private bill which was referred to the committee that I chair. We heard from advisors and submitters, and we are pleased now to report back for the second reading. It was referred on 18 February, and we invited the member in charge, the Hon Dr Megan Woods, to provide an oral submission on the bill, which she did. I wish to commend her for bringing this bill to the House on behalf of her community and on behalf of the trust. Advice on the bill was provided from the Ministry of Justice, and we also consulted closely with the promoter of the bill, the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust themselves. The Office of the Clerk also provided advice on the bill’s legislative quality, and the Parliamentary Counsel Office assisted with the drafting of it.

For those listening and watching who would wonder why it is necessary for the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust to come to Parliament, it’s required in a case where they have got advice that it can’t be changed by going to the High Court. We took advice as a committee to interrogate that and ensure that was the case. We were satisfied as the committee that it did need to come to Parliament, because the changes were substantial and substantive enough to require a legislative change, which is why we are recommending it to be passed into law and to have the changes.

In terms of the context of the background of the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust, it was established in 2016 to lease the Christchurch City Council’s social housing portfolio. It now provides homes to more than 2,700 people, in properties that they either own, lease, or have built in the communities across Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. It is the largest community and affordable housing provider in Christchurch and the South Island. They have identified that they can actually assist more communities in the region, in Canterbury, and potentially other areas. They wish to be able to do so, and it’s necessary to have this legislative change in order to enable them to do so, because they were restricted geographically under the founding legislation.

I just want to speak to these housing trusts, because though this is the biggest and largest community housing provider in the South Island, it’s obviously not the only one in the South Island, and there are others around the country. They do a phenomenal job. Certainly, one I’m personally familiar with is the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust, which was established around the same time and has also built a reasonably substantial body of community housing in the Queenstown Lakes region. That’s primarily in Queenstown, Wānaka, and surrounding areas. They do a phenomenal job of providing houses to people on incomes who would otherwise struggle to get into housing, in what is one of the most expensive places in New Zealand. They’re a progressive home ownership provider; they help people buy their way into a home over time. I note that Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust is doing exactly the same thing, although they have a broad portfolio—they also lease homes and provide maintenance services. These community housing trusts are providing a really important space in the market to ensure that people can have a home over their head, particularly people on incomes who are at the lower income part of the spectrum and would otherwise struggle to get a home.

On that, I note that Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust has an aim to build 100 new homes a year, which is quite a significant pipeline of work. They’ve already built around 400 homes since they came into existence in 2016 as a community housing provider. It’s certainly something that this Government is willing to support, and importantly, provide access to a cost of capital that is closer to say, Kāinga Ora, which has access to the Crown’s balance sheet. We want these community housing providers to also have access to cost of capital, which means that they can accelerate their work programme and provide these, because they are able to move in a nimble way that certainly I’ve been very impressed with when visiting a number of them across the country, including, like I mentioned before, the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust in my own electorate.

Going back to the consideration of this bill, it wasn’t a contentious bill in any way, shape, or form. We did receive submissions from nine interested groups and individuals, so it was quite targeted in terms of the submissions that we heard. We heard oral evidence from five submitters at hearings in Wellington, and also ones who appeared by video conference. Certainly, video conference has made things a lot easier for people to participate in the proceedings of Parliament without having to travel to Parliament, which I think is a positive development utilising new technology, and one we should continue to encourage.

We did make some minor, but we thought important, recommendations to amend the bill. We added new clause 25.3, because we did consider the founding purpose of the trust was for the benefit of the Christchurch and Banks Peninsula region, and we were going to allow it to expand its operations. But this was established initially to take over the Christchurch City Council social housing portfolio, and we wanted to make sure that if, for any reason, this trust were to be wound down, that the assets of this were to return to those who had initially built them up. So we did introduce a new guiding principle, that required the board, when transferring trust assets on wind-up to have regard to distributing them to organisations that can use them “for the benefit of people … in the geographical area [where the] … assets were [originally] generated, acquired, developed, or … situated”. We were just trying to make sure it reflected the original guiding principle on which this was established. It’s helpful having done a bit of work in the legal field!

This addresses the committee’s concern, that if the bill was introduced it would have given trustees unrestricted discretion, with no formal requirement to prioritise the regions where the assets came from. Even though it was understood that that was the intent, we wanted to make clear that this needed to be given regard to and, if in the unlikely event it were to be wound up, that that would be done.

We also added new clause 25.4, providing that if the board can’t reach a decision on asset transfer, the matter would go to the High Court for direction under section 27 of the Charitable Trusts Act 1957, which reflected the existing wording in the deed. Again, we wanted to strike that balance between the existing intention and language in the deed that established this trust, and broadening the trust’s intentions, but making sure there is a balance between the original intention and what we are enabling it to do. All of these were consulted with the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust themselves, and they were happy and comfortable with these changes.

I’ll just note also that the trust has agreed with the Greater Christchurch Partnership to investigate options to expand the trust model as part of a joint housing action plan that was adopted in 2023. That is because both the trust and the council believe there is significant demand for the trust services beyond the current geographical area and they may have, unintentionally, presupposed a bit of the work that has now been under way with the Head Start proposal that the Government is seeking from councils, in terms of an amalgamation. We’re wanting to hear from councils about how they could better deliver services more effectively, cheaper, reflecting the needs of their communities, looking potentially at unitary models to reduce the complexity and reduce the cost of delivering services. Certainly, this bill, by enabling a broader geographic area, probably has done some of the hard yards, in terms of this, to some of the work that we’ve done potentially, depending on what those councils put forward to the Government as options. We’ll see where that goes in the future.

This is a great bill. I commend, again, the work that the housing trust does, I commend the committee and all of our advisers for all of their assistance, and, with that, I commend this bill to the House.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand to support this bill. I would like to commend the Hon Megan Woods for bringing this to Parliament. It’s a good day when we build more houses, especially in my hometown, Christchurch.

Everyone in Aotearoa deserves to have access to safe, warm, and affordable homes. Supporting community housing organisations, like the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust, is one of the ways we can meet the gaps that leave people in instable houses, and those unseen homeless people—parents, mothers with children, staying on their friend’s couch until they stay on their next friend’s couch. It is people and organisations like those at the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust that are bringing stability to some families in Ōtautahi.

This week, or last week, Frank Film in Christchurch released a film on homelessness, and one of the former chairs of the Ōtautahi housing trust was on that wonderful, little documentary. I just want to quote Pam Sharpe now—Pam is a nurse who goes around and works for Housing First and has worked tirelessly to make sure people are housed in Ōtautahi, and she was also the former mayoress. Pam said, “These are real people here, and they are somebody’s son, somebody’s child, and I think, as a society, as a decent society, we need to let them know that we care.” Thank you to everyone who works at the Ōtautahi housing trust and to the select committee, to the submitters, and to everyone here who is supporting this bill, because we need more houses, and that’s what this is going to do: 2,700 people right now are leasing homes, and we can increase that when this bill passes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise in support of the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill, and, firstly, I’d just like to say thank you to the Hon Megan Woods for bringing this bill. I am a Christchurch girl myself, and I have seen the work that the community trust has been doing. They’re a great example of what we call a CHP—a community housing provider—that is providing affordable housing in Christchurch. I know, where I live, that you can get a pick-upper home on what they call their progressive home ownership programme. It’s basically where you own the home but you leasehold the land for a hundred years—and you can get a home in the Cashmere school zone for $350,000. That is really, really affordable, and, honestly, there’s nothing else quite like it. I’ve been in some of these homes, and they’re actually really, really nice. They’re great quality, and they’re creating nice wee communities in our suburbs, in our communities.

This bill came through our committee. It was definitely not a controversial bill, but any time that there is a trustee that is changing and you may be going away from your original purpose, it’s Parliament’s duty to have a look at what they’re wanting to do—the trust themselves—how they’re wanting to extend it, and where they’re wanting to go with that. Look, I think that the kind of housing that they’re building is really in line with this Government’s programme of having community housing providers and trying to get more housing. So that is definitely one of the reasons why we support this bill.

On being able to extend out to some of the areas, we heard from the trust themselves about wanting to go into places like Ashburton, potentially in North Canterbury, and possibly even over to the West Coast. I think that, given the fact that they have a really good track record so far, they work closely with the Government in partnership, it seems sensible to be able to expand the work that they’re doing. They also gave us reassurances that the priority will still be for Christchurch and the Christchurch region Ōtautahi, because that is where they’ve started, but it doesn’t stop them going elsewhere. The previous member talked about the fact that we do have a housing shortage in New Zealand. Christchurch is quite fortunate; we do actually have a lot more homes than other areas around New Zealand, and that’s possibly thanks to the earthquake and some relaxing of Resource Management Act (RMA) rules that happened for a wee while there. It can be semi-pro the changes to RMA that are going to be happening. There are areas like Ashburton that are seeing significant growth. It’s one of the developing areas, I’d say, in South Canterbury. We’ve got a huge amount of inequity in those areas, and you’re also seeing a lot of retiring people and individuals that might actually want to settle down into one of these cheaper, more affordable homes because they are often townhouses or apartments and things like that.

A little bit about the community trust: it was a registered community housing provider in 2016, the trust is a charitable registered trust under the Charities Act 2005, and it was originally established to manage the Christchurch City Council’s community housing portfolio, which I think is really interesting. I don’t know if there are other people here who remember what it was like around—I see someone else from Christchurch over the other side of House. I don’t know if you remember, but we used to have a lot of council housing and council flats around Christchurch. I grew up in Bishopdale, and there was quite a few there. There’s still a little bit left behind, but a lot of councils actually sold off their council housing because they became fiscally not sustainable. There are a lot of other reasons and arguments around that, but what I do think is that where someone like the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust is able to come in and offer a solution by building new, nice properties and helping the council potentially manage some of their future properties, I think, it’s a really good idea. Maybe I’m with ACT and maybe I’m for the community actually owning some of the properties—would you have thought that?

Secondly, I’d like to thank everybody that worked on this bill—my other committee colleagues. I’ve got the chair of the committee here, Joseph Mooney, which is great. I also want to thank the submissions that we had on this bill, which wasn’t a lot, because, like I said again, everybody is really for more housing and particularly community housing providers that are doing a good job. We also had a bit of work that was undertaken by the staff, the advisers, and the Parliamentary Counsel Office, so I want to thank them for their work that they do in this space.

The other thing that we actually debated as well—and this is actually a question really for this House going forward—is that these trusts have tiny little changes to their deeds and are coming through Parliament, and they are coming through select committees, and they are taking up our House time—not that I’m taking up any House time right now, of course. But there is something to be said about how we deal with these bills. I think the future Government should be looking at ways in which we could possibly deal with this in a separate way. I hate to think that any community trust would come to Parliament because they didn’t want the legal costs of going to the High Court, because we do know that it is a very expensive route. Sometimes they have tried that, and that doesn’t work in itself. But bills like this which we all support, and that make very minor changes to the trust deed—and I think we’ve got another one that we’ll talk about after this bill; it also has some changes, although that was a slightly different scope change—I think we should be dealing with them in a different fashion. That is something that I think everybody in this House should consider. Maybe it’s a little bit of a process change as to what we do when these bills come through the House.

I won’t talk any longer on this. I commend this bill to the House, and I look forward to seeing what progress Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust makes in the Canterbury region and the wider region. Thank you.

I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak in support of this bill. It’s great to have this bill back. Actually, it was interesting just following Laura McClure’s comments about different ways of dealing with non-contentious legislation, because I know that is something that is being considered around the House, and maybe we’ll get to that fairly shortly in the next Parliament.

This is a private bill developed by the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust—ŌCHT. I just wanted to congratulate them for the bill, but, also, to congratulate the Hon Dr Megan Woods for sponsoring the bill to the House. ŌCHT, the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust, is a very good operation. I think we’ve all said that. Just going back a little bit further in the history: 2014 was when the Christchurch City Council started looking at whether there was a different way to run its own council housing, and they ended up establishing the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust in 2016. I want to congratulate them for that—for that step that they made—but, also, for their ongoing involvement in the trust. Three of the nine trustees are appointed by the Christchurch Council and, of course, they are—I suppose—the beneficial owner, ultimately, of the assets.

I also wanted to say that Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust has also been very generous outside of Christchurch. When my council in Wellington was looking at establishing a community housing trust, as well. Actually, we worked with the Hon Dr Megan Woods on that, and getting some Government support for that, because we needed that, because that was the whole purpose: being able to access the income-related rent subsidy for some of our tenants. We looked to Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust to get advice for their experience—the way they’d gone about it and how to go about it. I thank Cate Kearney, in particular, as the chief executive then and the chief executive now, for that advice. I thought they were very, very generous with that.

It was also great to be able to visit ŌCHT in Christchurch. When I did that, they did actually say, “Yep, look, we want to expand our boundaries. This is the piece of legislation we’re looking at. We have looked at all the other ways of going about doing this, but we want to be able to benefit people outside of Christchurch and Banks Peninsula.” I think that’s an excellent idea. They do a great job, and so being able to expand it outside of that to wider Canterbury, West Coast, wherever it might be—I think that’s really, really good. Of course, this week, I think, we will see whether there are any changes suggested to the boundaries of Christchurch and other councils. If that is the case, then the ability for ŌCHT to be able to go wider on that score alone would be a good idea.

When I think about the level of social housing supply in their neighbouring territory, Selwyn District, when I was there and talking to them, one of the things that they complained about—no, they asked about; this was the previous council, not the current one. The previous council said, “Look, there’s a lot of areas which we think, as a very fast-growing area, Government support will be important for.” Yep, fair call. One of those was social housing, because, essentially, they said they don’t have any social housing in that fast-growing district. And they said, “What about doing that?” Well, allowing ŌCHT to expand into Selwyn District would help them.

I might also mention, as I have in this House before, that that didn’t stop them trying to get rid of a housing community—a lovely housing community—down at Upper Selwyn Huts. I had to step in there with Jamie Arbuckle to fight against them doing that and to persuade them that was a very bad idea, and so that beautiful community, which has been there for 130 years, hopefully, will have another 130 years, at least, to enjoy that. But many of those people—and Selwyn District Council knew it—would have ended up in social housing, which they didn’t have any of, and, therefore, they would have needed to go to Christchurch. I’d just make that point. That’s an area which doesn’t have any social housing at the moment. It’s one we went into bat for, but it makes sense to have ŌCHT being able to expand into that area, as well.

I wanted to congratulate the whole team at ŌCHT: Chairperson Darren Evans and CEO Cate Kearney, as I’ve said. Just a couple of months ago in June, they opened the 19th and 20th new communities at Griffiths Avenue and Elm Grove. Since 2019, when they started doing these developments, they have built and opened, and now occupied, 401 warm, dry, energy-efficient, secure homes—401. I think that’s great, because that means that there’s probably—what—1,500 people or so who are being housed by ŌCHT who previously weren’t. That’s fantastic.

Also, I wanted to congratulate them for doing this in a financially efficient way. They say that their above-ground development costs in that period of 2019 to now have only gone up by 5 percent, when the market across the board has been between 30 percent and 40 percent. I think that says that not only are they doing a great job for the community but they’re also doing it in a financially astute way.

I just wanted to make a little comparison here, because we had a speech earlier in the day in the general debate about building and construction, and it was to say, look, this Government have pulled the plug on some building and construction projects. A lot of those were Kāinga Ora (KO), and I want to compare ŌCHT with KO. When I was mayor of Wellington, I used to meet with KO regularly, and they would turn up and they would talk about houses that they were going to build—one- or two-bedroom houses at $900,000 to $1 million. I would look at this, going, “That is extraordinarily expensive. That is not good value for money.”

I have the Canterbury Construction Report here, which said that in the year to March 2024, in Christchurch City, of the biggest 50 construction companies, totalling 2,610 homes with the average being maybe $2,500 per square metre, 35 of those were below $3,000 per square metre. ŌCHT was at $3,741; Kāinga Ora was the top by a country mile at $4,785. That is 28 percent higher than ŌCHT. That tells you why something was going wrong there. And why was that? When I talked to lots and lots of building firms, they consistently talked about what KO was doing. They take a standard design and they change it, and then they change it again and then they change it again—that’s expensive. They turn up to meetings where the building company might turn up with two or three people, and they turn up with 20—that’s expensive. That was why we were on track, or KO was on track, to end up with a debt—I think it was going to be $29 billion.

That is why the wings were clipped and that is why I think that the Opposition need to reflect on that before they say, actually, this Government pulled the plug on some things. We could have kept going, but that would have cost an enormous amount of money, racked up a huge amount of debt and somebody—the taxpayer of New Zealand—would have ended up having to pay for that. So I think we need to put that in context. Instead of that, what this Government did in its first Budget—and this is relevant to ŌCHT—is we backed community housing providers (CHPs). Community housing providers have shown that they’re more nimble, they’re more innovative, they’re more connected to community, and they’re more focused on getting good value for money.

One thing, Madam Speaker—so, you’ve changed, now—is I’ve visited what I think is our largest—I think it’s still our largest—CHP a few days ago, Tāmaki Regeneration, which is joint-owned by the Crown and Auckland Council. I want to congratulate their chair, Evan Davies, and CEO Shelley Katae and her team, and thank Shelley and her strategy and master planning general manager Joanna Brain for a look around and a talk through what they were doing. They own 2,500 homes; they house 10,000 people; and they’re currently, all at once—not sequentially, but all at once—building 600 homes. That’s pretty impressive to be able to go around the suburbs of Panmure, Glen Innes, and Point England, and see how many homes are being built by Tāmaki Regeneration. They are doing a fantastic job. The aim is to build 10,500 homes. Some of those, they’ll recycle back into being private homes, but they’ll keep on building those things. They are creating not just housing but, also, rebuilding the community of Panmure, Glen Innes, and Point England.

I also just want to reflect, finally, on another concern that was expressed in the general debate, and it’s about employment. I’m just using, again, Tāmaki Regeneration, as a community housing provider, as an example. They’re actively getting local young people upskilled and into employment. I visited the place where they were doing the interviews and talking to people—“What are the skills you want to do?” They’re building trades skills there. Since 2014, they have helped 2,000 local young people into employment. Those people are literally building their community. That’s a source of huge pride, skills, and is good for the community.

Just to finish: ŌCHT, Tāmaki Regeneration, and I know lots of other community housing providers are doing great work to build communities and build warm, dry homes, those two, in two of our largest cities. This bill will help ŌCHT to do its great work across a wider area, and I’m delighted to commend this bill to the House.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): This is a split call.

Thank you. Madam Speaker, I rise on behalf of the Green Party in support of this bill. I’d like to acknowledge, actually, the work of Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust over the last decade, and the great mahi that they have done.

Christchurch City Council has a proud history of providing public housing, and I must point out that the formation of the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust came about because of the 2011 National-led Government’s social housing reforms that unfairly excluded councils from actually accessing the income-related rent subsidy, which was a great shame because of the history that the Christchurch City Council had had in providing that public housing and the great job that they did do in that space.

It’s been pleasing to see the success of the trust, and it makes complete sense to expand that to areas that would benefit hugely from their services. As I said at the very beginning, the Green Party supports this bill. Kia ora.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise, alongside my colleagues, very much in support of the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill at the second reading. I think it’s already been acknowledged by other speakers that this is a relatively small and straightforward bill but that it has the potential to make a really meaningful difference for communities across Canterbury, including, might I add, a district that I am very proud to represent: Selwyn.

Hon Simon Watts: Oh!

Hon NICOLA GRIGG: I think that that member across the House has been there once or twice.

Reuben Davidson: Many times—love the place.

Hon NICOLA GRIGG: At first reading, this House considered the purpose of the bill and the problem that it was seeking to address. Since then, the Social Services and Community Committee has gone on to examine the proposal and reported the bill back to the House, and that committee has confirmed the bill’s core purpose of enabling the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust to operate beyond Christchurch and Banks Peninsula while maintaining its charitable focus on providing community and affordable housing.

The central question of the bill is: should a successful, proven community housing provider be allowed to operate beyond a geographic boundary that no longer reflects the needs of the region it services? I think that for all of us here today who have considered the bill and the work undertaken through the select committee process, the answer is a resounding yes.

The Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust has established itself as a very respected and capable provider of community and affordable housing. Since it was established in 2016, it’s grown into one of the larger providers of community and affordable housing in the South Island. It’s now managing thousands of homes and supporting thousands of tenants. It’s demonstrated that it can deliver housing solutions at scale, whilst maintaining really strong governance and financial sustainability.

This bill does not alter that core purpose. It simply removes the restriction that limits the trust’s work to Christchurch and Banks Peninsula, allowing it to provide social and affordable rental housing and related services beyond those boundaries, if it chooses to do so. From my perspective in Selwyn, that really matters. Selwyn, as I think I’ve told members across the House many, many times, is one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing districts, and, of course, every year we enjoy having thousands more families coming to make Selwyn their home. They come for the opportunities, for the employment, the lifestyle, and the very strong sense of community that exists right across our district.

That growth is something we should celebrate and it’s a sign that people see a future in Selwyn, but, of course, the growth creates challenges, and as our community expands, the demand for housing expands with it. We need homes for younger families, we need housing options for older residents wanting to remain close to their families, their friends, and their support networks, and we need accommodation for the workers who keep our communities running, whether they’re teachers, healthcare workers, tradies, farm workers, or the employees of the many, many small businesses across our district.

One of the realities of rapid growth is that not everyone benefits equally from rising demand and rising property values. There are people in Selwyn who work hard, contribute to their communities, and do everything right, but who struggle to find housing that’s affordable, secure, and appropriate for their circumstances, and so community housing providers play a really critical and, I think, understated role in responding to that need. They’re not the sole answer to housing affordability, of course, and they’re not intended to replace either the private market or Government housing programmes, but they are a really, really critical part of the wider housing system that providing practical support for people who might otherwise find themselves with very limited options.

That’s why this bill is a really sensible one, because it recognises that housing challenges don’t stop at council boundaries. The conversations that we’re having about housing in Christchurch are also being had in rural Canterbury and in Selwyn. In fact, many of the pressures are actually shared. Communities across Greater Christchurch are increasingly connected, and people cross district boundaries every day for work, for education, for socialising, and for play. It therefore makes sense to allow experienced organisations the flexibility to respond to housing need whenever it exists.

Importantly, this bill does not require the trust to expand. It does not mandate projects in any district across Canterbury, it does not commit funding, it does not override local decision-making, and it does not change the trust’s core purpose. What it does is remove an unnecessary barrier. It allows the trust, if it identifies demand and has the capability to respond, to bring its special expertise to other communities that might benefit from those, and that is a practical and enabling approach. I think that distinction is really important.

Today, here in this Parliament, we’re not directing the trust to move away from Christchurch and to build houses in Selwyn, or Waimakariri, nor are we predetermining any future development decisions. What we are doing is ensuring that this outdated restriction doesn’t prevent sensible conversations from taking place in the future. This bill removes barriers that no longer make sense, while allowing communities to determine what solutions best meet their needs, and that’s very much aligned with our Government’s approach to housing and it is why we’re supporting this bill here.

I also note this proposal did not emerge overnight. It arose through work undertaken by the Greater Christchurch Partnership, which recognised the benefits allowing of allowing the trust’s successful model to be applied more broadly across the region, like, as I’ve mentioned, in Waimakariri and Selwyn.

As the proud MP for Selwyn for the past six years, I see firsthand how our communities are evolving, and they are evolving fast. Rolleston is now a major urban centre in its own right, Lincoln continues to grow rapidly, and Prebbleton, West Melton, Leeston, Darfield, and many of our smaller communities are experiencing significant changes as well.

Hon Mark Patterson: Southbridge.

Hon NICOLA GRIGG: Southbridge is very much on the map, I say to the member from New Zealand First, who proudly calls Southbridge home. People very much want to live in these communities because they are fantastic places to raise their families—[Member gestures towards the Hon Mark Patterson] exhibit A—grow businesses, and build a future. Our challenge is ensuring that people from a range of backgrounds and income levels can continue to do exactly that.

Healthy communities need diversity. We need young people who are getting started, we need families putting down their roots, we need older residents who want to remain connected to the communities that they helped build, and we need the people who teach our children, we need to look after our health, and we need to run our businesses and support our local economy to be able to afford to live in the communities. That is one of the reasons I see merit in this bill. It doesn’t solve every housing challenge facing districts like Selwyn, but it adds another potential tool in the tool box. It creates flexibility, it creates opportunity, and it allows an experienced organisation to explore ways that it may be able to help to contribute beyond the existing boundary.

At the same time, the bill retains the trust’s commitment to Christchurch. Christchurch remains central to its purpose, and the trust itself has made clear that any future expansion would be undertaken carefully and strategically. That should provide reassurance to those who want to ensure that the strong work already being undertaken in Christchurch continues.

One of the real privileges of being a member of Parliament in Selwyn is spending time with people across the district and hearing directly about what matters to them. Whether I’m at the Men’s Shed in Rolleston, a Christmas parade in Lincoln, or an A & P show in Leeston—I haven’t seen you there for a while, Mark Patterson—as I travel around my district, I’m constantly reminded how much people value this wonderful community that has been built.

People want their children to be able to stay local when they grow up. They want their parents to be able to downsize without having to leave the district. They want the teachers, the healthcare workers, the tradies, the farm workers, and the small-business employees who keep our communities running to be able to afford to live there too.

At its core, that’s what this small bill is about. This bill will not solve those challenges on its own, but it is a practical step. It removes an outdated restriction, it provides flexibility for the future, it ensures that for communities like Selwyn who wish to partner with an experienced community housing provider, the law will not stand unnecessarily in the way.

For those reasons, I’m really pleased to be able to support the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill at its second reading. I commend the bill to the House.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Nicely read speech, Minister.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s my pleasure to stand and take a call to deliver a speech—not read—on the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill. This is a great bill, and I’m very happy to speak in support of it. I also want to acknowledge my colleague the Hon Megan Woods, who brought this bill to the House and through the process to get it to where it is today.

Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe place to call home, and Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust have done an extraordinary job and continue to do an extraordinary job of providing exactly that across Christchurch, and particularly across a number of communities in Christchurch East. Very recently, I was able to see new properties being opened both in Bromley and in a new part of the Christchurch East electorate, just off Fitzgerald Avenue. These are fantastic homes that have been very well built, and very much the focus is on building and strengthening the community within and around them through that process. It’s excellent to see that through this bill, we will be able to allow the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust to go beyond the geographic boundaries under which they currently have to operate.

One thing that I can’t let an opportunity to discuss housing pass without referencing is the current situation we have across New Zealand with homelessness, but particularly in Christchurch East, within Bexley, a suburb that was red-zoned after the earthquake and that is now home to up to 80 people, none of whom are living in homes that are warm or dry. Many are living in cars, in vans, in buses, in tents, under tarpaulins, and under pallets through what is one of the coldest Christchurch winters, in recent days, that we’ve seen in a very long time. So, more than ever, the need for trusts and organisations who can support and provide housing for those who so desperately need it need to be supported.

This is an excellent step that allows the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust to be able to provide that support continually within Christchurch and Canterbury but also beyond into all of the communities that they could potentially step into to provide that support. It’s great to see a bill that empowers the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust to be able to do that.

I think we definitely need to be doing more to ensure that adequate, safe, warm, dry housing is available and that homes are available for the people who do not have them, and so in passing this bill through the House, we make that easier for people who are very good at it. I’d like to acknowledge Cate and the board at Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust, who do such extraordinary work, and I look forward to seeing what they can do beyond Canterbury when this bill passes. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure to speak on the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill in this second reading. I’m sure that the Social Services and Community Committee would’ve heard some very good stories about how the trust operates.

Recently, the the Hon Chris Bishop and I—I think it actually was last year, so time flies—attended the opening of an Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust housing development in my electorate: the laneways, it is called, and it is a collection of various different models of housing. Some are low-cost rentals and some are lease-to-own or rent-to-own - type arrangements, and so they have a progressive ownership model. This is one of a number of similar kinds of developments that have happened across the city, but it is the second one that has occurred in my time as the “very happy to be the” MP for Banks Peninsula, and so I have been very honoured to be at those opening events.

At the opening last year, I met a man called Steven. Steven had been trying to get into housing for many years, and for part of his time had actually been homeless. He, through various different organisations, had been able to work his way up, first, to getting to the position of being able to be in a stable rental property and then to actually have employment, and having steady employment meant that he was then eligible to be part of this progressive ownership model. He is now the very proud owner of a little townhouse in the laneways community, and he is just going from strength to strength in his life and is really getting involved in the community. I have to say that one of his hobbies, along with AI, is writing songs about things. He even composed a little song about what it meant to him—ChatGPT did actually help him to compose the song—and his life to be living in this community now, and it really showed me how deeply impactful housing is on people’s lives.

The Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust has shown that they are very capable of delivering the kind of support that helps people very holistically. They are not just in providing the housing but also providing them with the financial acumen to be able to help them and support themselves, and they also have some ability to connect in with other social services—they’re very well connected. It’s a very welcoming environment for people, and they’re able to live very good lives because of it.

The Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust has been building up—as we’ve heard across the House—from its inception in 2016, and it has developed quite a good model of reinvesting some of the money that they have back into the new developments. The guaranteed partnership loan - type situation that the Government has provided has also helped them to further their portfolio, and then reinvesting those returns into more developments means that they’re actually starting to gather a lot more pace now. They are getting to the point where, on average, they’ve been building about a hundred houses or units per year. They’re hoping to be able to get it up closer to 200 per year, and, as they gather pace and diversify, I think we’ll see that success only develop further.

As has been pointed out, this is part of a collaborative housing plan across the greater Christchurch metropolitan area, with the Selwyn District Council and the Waimakariri District Council also at Christchurch and Banks Peninsula, looking at how growth in that greater metropolitan area is going to develop over time and how they can work together on housing to be able to make that happen. Everyone will be aware that there’s a little bit of an elephant in the room around local government at the moment about how local governments might look. This bill is fixing up this particular trust variation.

I suspect that the other way of doing this might’ve been to amalgamate the councils of Selwyn, Waimakariri, and Christchurch City Council, but I don’t think any of them would thank me for suggesting that they’d just do that straight off the bat for this particular purpose. But it does demonstrate that there is a willingness to work together across the greater Christchurch area, and acknowledging the huge growth that is happening in parts of those geographical areas, particularly, as the Hon Nicola Grigg has said—she pointed out the huge growth in Selwyn. There’s been quite a lot of growth in my electorate as well, around Halswell, which connects on to Selwyn. Also, in Waimakariri, they’re expecting to see quite a lot of growth in the future as well.

Where there’s growth, we need to make sure that there’s an allowance for all people in the community to be able to afford to live and work from there. The community housing trust model is an exceptionally good one. It’s one that National supports really strongly, because we don’t believe that the Government alone can provide all of the housing requirements. We know that community trusts, as well as Kāinga Ora for Government, as well as private developers are all part of a larger ecosystem of housing. This bill is another practical way in which we’re advancing the practical expansion of a really useful and really successful model.

The Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust is, as I said, reinvesting really well. It’s got a very strong governance structure; it’s been in place for ten years now and is a really good success. Being able to expand beyond those rigid boundaries is a very useful step. I think there was some discussion about whether they could just take over all of the South Island. I’m not sure if that’s—

Joseph Mooney: Probably not.

Dr VANESSA WEENINK: Probably not, but when there’s a really successful idea—it seems like the member for Southland doesn’t want Christchurch taking over.

Joseph Mooney: Queenstown Lakes might have something to say about that.

Dr VANESSA WEENINK: Yes, well, Queenstown Lakes has got, I’m sure, a very strong community housing trust as well.

Those community housing trusts are absolutely vital for providing the ability for communities to have housing. The rationale and the reasoning for having housing is really strongly understood by most people. Banks Peninsula has a bit of a housing issue in Akaroa, because it’s a very popular holiday destination, and many of the houses that are there are actually holiday homes. It makes it quite difficult for those who are working in the local hospitality sector and tourism to be able to find accommodation during the summer months and when it’s particularly busy, and also for teachers and any of the local health workers to be able to have somewhere to live.

It is a challenging thing, and I think it’s a similar thing for Queenstown Lakes as well, where there is that challenge of tourism operators having workforce but having a really big population of empty houses most of the time. I don’t think anywhere in the world has solved that particular little nubbin of a problem, but we still have community housing available. There’s a small number in Akaroa, and as I mentioned, across my electorate, there is quite a number of units of social housing.

The Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill is a very practical way in which we’re fixing some of the basics and literally building the future.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare, otirā tēnā tātou katoa. E tū ana awau ki te tautoko i tēnei pire, arā te Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill, ā, ka tautoko tonu awau i ngā mihi ki a Hōnore Megan Woods, nāna te pire i tau mai ai ki roto i te Whare nei.

[Thank you, Madam Speaker, indeed, greetings to us all. I stand to support this bill, the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill, and I offer my continued support to the acknowledgements of the Hon Dr Megan Woods, who brought this bill into the House.]

Some people might think Ikaroa-Rāwhiti is far removed from the area we’re discussing in this bill. However, according to the Māori seats, Ikaroa-Rāwhiti is actually the neighbour of Te Tai Tonga, which covers Ōtautahi. Hamoterangi, our ancestor, who is the mother of Ngāti Porou, is also the mother of Ngāi Tahu, so naturally, I support the housing of the mokopuna of Hamoterangi and, of course, all the other whānau who are benefiting from this amazing organisation, who’ve we’ve heard accolades from across the House for so far. I support them being able to broaden their horizons to support as many more families as they can.

As I was sitting and listening to speeches, I reflected on the work of my mother. Housing was a very important aspect of the mahi she did, both in a voluntary capacity and then eventually with Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Porou. I observed Mum helping whānau secure their land, save up their deposits, and eventually build their houses. What you see when somebody’s got a dry, warm home and a roof over their heads—not only is it life-changing and allows them to advance in other area of their life, but it also gives them somewhere for the whole whānau to come back to and call home.

We know that the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust exists to bridge the affordability gap between the general market and social housing. As we traverse Aotearoa, and people tell us, of course, the cost of living is the number one issue, housing is not far behind. Labour’s housing record is something I’m very proud of, so it’s only natural that the Hon Megan Woods would be the person who’s brought this bill to the House, and Labour naturally supports it fully. It was working alongside organisations like Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust that Labour built a record number of public homes, with organisations such as this building over half of the 14,161 homes build under the Labour Government with vital community partnerships.

Nā reira, e te Māngai o te Whare, kāre au e tō roa i aku kōrero i tēnei ahiahi [];ko te tino kaupapatherefore, I will not prolong my comments this evening—the main thing is to stand up and support the expansion of housing, to support the expansion of this amazing organisation to continue to help whānau—now not only in Ōtautahi, but in further surrounding communities. I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise and take a call here on the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill at its second reading. I always enjoy the opportunity to rise and take a call on members’ days where we have members’, private, or local bills going through the House that give the sponsor of the bill an opportunity to promote a comparatively lower profile but still very important issue in their particular area of interest or in their particular community, as the case is in this example today.

I want to start, though, by acknowledging and thanking the Social Services and Community Committee, chaired by Joseph Mooney, for their consideration of this bill. I understand they had a modest number of submitters but that those submitters’ views were well-traversed and contributed to the ongoing progression of this bill. We see that coming through, I think, with the amendments proposed here as well and, indeed, the collaborative approach that the committee demonstrated in working to get this piece of legislation into a better place such that it can progress through the remaining stages in the House.

I think it also highlights, and we’ve heard from many of the speakers on this piece of legislation already, the value of community housing providers. That’s something that we firmly believe in the National Party—that it isn’t always the case that Government knows best, that Wellington knows best, but, indeed, in many cases, those in the community, at the coalface, are best placed to deliver the outcomes needed in those communities. A community housing trust like this one, from all accounts, is doing a fantastic job.

We’ve heard also about the strong growth happening in the region down there in Canterbury. It’s something we also experience in my electorate in the Waikato, where there is an exciting period of growth happening. Of course, alongside that does come some challenges. It’s important that we have mechanisms to support that, and I’m really proud of the progress that’s been made under this Government around modernising our consenting laws, our building laws, to get to the point where we can deliver housing in a more efficient manner to meet the need in the community.

Also, alongside that, when you look at the social housing wait-list numbers, we saw, obviously, what was at the time, from memory, that about 12,000 back in 2017, rose to a peak of 26,000 to 27,000 over the subsequent six years, and it has now fallen back down to, I think, about 18,000. There is still high demand there, but a really good level of progress is being made under this Government, and when you look at the value that community housing trust providers bring to the area, of course it’s something that we’d want to continue to support.

Now, in terms of the growth happening in that region, I think it’s a pragmatic approach to be able to look at this legislation and say that, OK, the original intent of Christchurch City, which was only a year after the legislation was passed, was then expanded to include Banks Peninsula, and it has now, subsequently, been given flexibility to expand again beyond that region. I think it’s a wise move that we are not defining specifically in legislation the names of the territorial authorities in which it could be expanded into, because, as we know, we’re going through a process now around potential amalgamation of territorial authorities. That would potentially provide another unreasonable hiccup, such that we would need to be amending the legislation again, should that level of detail be prescribed.

So I think the wording that’s been proposed is very appropriate in terms of just giving that flexibility to the trustees down in Christchurch to make those decisions based on their assessment or where the need is, where the growth is happening, and where the opportunity is for them, as well, to drive some development, ensuring they are capturing those efficiencies and maximising the output for the trust, as well. I think that on the basis of those aspects, it’s a prudent adjustment there.

In terms of the committee’s decision around wanting to amend the wind-up clauses: again, I think that’s a really reasonable approach just to make sure that it’s clearly articulating that the benefit must pass on to the community. I support that as well, and I look forward to this bill progressing. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s lovely to be able to rise here to speak about the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill. It has been brought to the House by the Hon Dr Megan Woods, who is a huge advocate of public housing and has done great work in this field.

I want to pick up on a couple of comments that have been made by other members in this House. One is what we’ve just heard from Tim van de Molen about potential local government reforms. I do wonder how many bills like this will have to come through Parliament if all the changes that this Government is considering actually happen, because, of course, there are many organisations such as this trust that refer to local government boundaries—I can see Madam Assistant Speaker Pugh nodding there, as the previous mayor of a local authority.

I also want to pick up on something that Andy Foster said, which was that it was so much easier dealing with community housing organisations rather than Kāinga Ora, and he mentioned about Kāinga Ora’s stopping building. I have a couple of reflections on that. One is, of course, that in the great city of Dunedin—not that far away from Christchurch, but a good four hours’ drive—there are some wonderful examples of Kāinga Ora housing developments that were ready to go. They were all consented, houses demolished, 41 sites on Carroll Street, and what has this Government done? Ended it. What’s happening in Port Chalmers? They’re trying to sell the land when we’re at the lowest part of the cycle, and this land has been public housing for a long, long time.

Shame on this Government and those members trying to say that they are supportive of public housing. Those are not the facts on the ground, and particularly in my electorate of Dunedin.

I also heard some reference to “Well, maybe this housing trust can extend out to the rest of the country.”, and there was some quibbling from the member for Southland about the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust. Of course, that is a very great housing trust, and I agree with the member’s quibbling on that point. It does relate back to my Dunedin examples of where perhaps the Minister of Housing would like to come and talk to communities in Dunedin about building those 41 units in Carroll Street. I’ve invited him many times.

But—moving on—good for Christchurch, good for the areas around Christchurch that might be in different local government areas, and congratulations again to the Hon Dr Megan Woods for her fantastic advocacy always for the people of Christchurch.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s always a great day to stand and talk about Christchurch. So it is with great pleasure—[Interruption] My colleagues are giving me a bit of grief. I think they think I’m a little bit one-eyed, but that’s fine. It’s a great pleasure that I stand in support of the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (Trust Variation) Bill.

It is a private bill that has been brought to the House by the Hon Dr Megan Woods, and the Social Services and Community Committee have been going through it. I have been looking through their report, and I just do want to acknowledge the work of the Social Services and Community Committee. It’s one of the few select committees I’ve only ever been subbed on. I think I’ve been subbed on to most of the other ones, but this one is probably the least out of all. But I don’t hold that against them, and especially not the chair Joseph Mooney for the work that he does.

It did cause me to look through the submissions that have gone on before this bill, and there weren’t very many. I do believe there were nine, and so it’s probably not an overly contentious bill. Just reading through those submissions, I think it’s probably quite important to maybe highlight some of them because some of the submitters might come and have a submission before the select committee, but they may not necessarily think that the rest of the House actually takes into consideration what they’ve thought.

I thought I would just kind of read through and see what some of the submitters had to say about this bill, bearing in mind it hasn’t been overly contentious. There were only nine written submissions and five oral submissions, but they included a very good submission from the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust. I do just want to acknowledge the team there and the work that they do, and I will get back to talking about them a little bit later.

There was one submitter, Stephen, who was a former tenant of the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust. He was very supportive of this bill because he had benefited from the work that the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust does. As we’ve heard, they do have public and social housing. They also have affordable rentals and they do have that progressive model to be able to get people into homeownership. I do wonder whether Stephen probably did benefit from that latter scheme to actually end up having his own home, which is what we hope that all New Zealanders can achieve. I think that is a very good goal.

Interestingly enough, one of the submissions actually had a screen capture of me speaking in the first reading. It’s not very often in submissions to select committee that you see a screenshot of yourself, and so I was quite chuffed to see that. Luckily, it was in complimentary terms about some of the language I’d used about it being a registered charity, so Anna had just taken that screenshot of me. It’s not every day that you see that when you look at a select committee submission.

Also, not all the submissions were for the bill. Some were maybe a little bit misguided in what they thought the bill was going to do, but I suppose you’d come to expect that there are some that are going to have different views. One concern was raised that they didn’t want the trust to be spread too thin right across the country, and I think that that probably speaks to the quality of the housing trust that this submitter didn’t want to see that quality being diminished by kind of spreading it too far. You never know, Madam Speaker, they might even be able to spread to the West Coast, if we pass this bill. Maybe you can get—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Who knows?

Dr HAMISH CAMPBELL: Yeah, who knows—who knows. You may get some love from Christchurch, all the way over in the West Coast, one can only hope, because it is a very good community housing trust, if I may say so myself. That’s not just because it’s from Christchurch, but that does stand it in good stead.

Just looking through some of the statistics, it is the largest non-government provider of community and affordable housing in the South Island, and it is registered under the Public and Community Housing Management Act 1992. It manages more than 2,400 homes, serving more than 2,800 tenants across Christchurch and Banks Peninsula, which is interesting, because I was busy looking through where all the units are located. I found that about 187 of those units just happen to be in the mighty Ilam electorate. Ilam has probably about 900 Kāinga Ora homes as well. We’re probably in the top 50 percent—

Hon Dr Megan Woods: You probably sold quite a few of those.

Dr HAMISH CAMPBELL: —of State houses, and actually, we have brought in—

Reuben Davidson: He didn’t deny it.

Dr HAMISH CAMPBELL: There was a bit of an interjection from the other side. We have actually brought in some rules toughening up about tenants in Kāinga Ora, because that’s probably the number one issue that comes through my office door—the antisocial behaviour that goes on in some of the Kāinga Ora homes. You have lovely young families in Kāinga Ora homes, and they have neighbours that are displaying very aggressive antisocial behaviour, and the previous Government did nothing about fixing the problem. We did fix that problem.

The thing is, as has already been mentioned, this didn’t happen just in isolation. It has been in conjunction with the Christchurch City Council, the Selwyn Council, the Waimakariri Council, and also Environment Canterbury to make sure that there’s broad support. I think it does show that there’s growth in Christchurch. Christchurch has the highest level of domestic migration anywhere in the country. That’s, I think, kind of showing the boom that is happening in the area.

If we look at building consents for new homes in the year ending in June 2026, there were 8,647 new homes consented—that’s an increase of 33 percent. Canterbury is also the record holder for the number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents. We’ve got 12.1 new homes consented per 1,000 residents, and I think the national average is around 7.4, and I think that talks to the growth.

We have heard from the member for Selwyn, Nicola Grigg, that a lot of the growth is in Selwyn, and it’s also in the Waimakariri district as well. The trust has seen this growth and the need to grow and expand in those areas. I think this bill does make perfect sense. It does allow expansion past the district of Christchurch. Of course, when you talk about Christchurch, people often think that includes places like Rolleston and Kaiapoi and things like that, but we’re actually talking about the local authority area of Christchurch.

This is really just a simple fix. As we say on this side, we’re fixing the basics and building the future, so this is fixing the—

Hon Member: It’s a beautiful thing.

Dr HAMISH CAMPBELL: It’s beautiful thing, that’s right. We’re fixing a very basic thing with this bill.

Also, just getting back to the select committee report; it is a fairly brief report—only a couple of pages—and probably that reflects that the bill itself is actually really only a couple of pages long and very straightforward. Of course, it had to come to Parliament; it was the only way that this bill could be changed—hence we’re dealing with it in the House. It might seem a little bit strange that we’re dealing with what would seem a fairly straightforward and even minor issue here in the House, but it’s good just to kind of outline that.

There were a few changes recommended to the bill, and those amendments were passed unanimously by the select committee, and hat is really what happens if the trust was to wind up. If you’d built a whole lot of houses down in Ashburton, would then the benefit go back to the people in Ashburton, or would it all kind of go back to Christchurch? Of course, I’m not overly biased, but it’s great to see that the trust is still focusing on Christchurch because it is, of course, the best city in the country. It’s good that we can actually spread the love around. This is a very efficient trust. I think, since its inception in 2016, they have built over 134 houses by actually kind of returning back their returns into the building. Also, I think it has given back about $130 million to the Christchurch City Council in rates. It’s an amazing organisation. Of course, they have developed expertise, strong governance, and a proven operating model, and I think has the capacity to kind of spread that model further around the country. Maybe some other community providers, or maybe people who aren’t in the community housing providing space but want to get there could actually follow what they did.

Following the earthquakes, of course, our city did face some enormous challenges, but we’ve learnt the value of partnership—whether it be with NGOs, with the charitable sector, and also local bodies. The trust, of course, did grow from the Christchurch City Council, and it has evolved into a very highly regarded community organisation. Thank you.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): The member’s time has expired.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Trust Horizon (Trust Variation) Bill

Second Reading