Minister of Housing (New Zealand)

The Minister of Housing is a minister in the government of New Zealand with responsibility for the government's house-building programme. The position was established in 1938 as Minister in charge of Housing, and has most commonly been known as Minister of Housing. Other iterations have included the Minister of Building and Housing, the Minister of Social Housing, and the Minister of Housing and Urban Development.

Minister of Housing
Coat of arms of New Zealand
Flag of New Zealand
Incumbent
Megan Woods[1]
since 27 June 2019
Ministry of Housing and Urban Development
StyleThe Honourable
Member ofCabinet of New Zealand
Executive Council
Reports toPrime Minister of New Zealand
AppointerGovernor-General of New Zealand
Term lengthAt His Majesty's pleasure
PrecursorMinister of Housing and Urban Development
Formation13 December 1938
First holderTim Armstrong
Salary$288,900[2]
Websitewww.beehive.govt.nz

The present Minister is Megan Woods, a member of the Labour Party, who has held the position since 2019.[1] Woods was confirmed as the Minister for Labour's second term of Government in 2020.

History

The First Labour Government created the position of Minister in charge of Housing in 1938, to oversee the government's state housing agenda. Responsibility for housing was part of the Works portfolio for some years until the restoration of the Housing portfolio by the Second National Government in 1949.

Until the 1970s, the Housing portfolio was often held in conjunction with responsibility for the State Advances Corporation; the Corporation was dissolved and much of its responsibility transferred to the new Housing Corporation of New Zealand in 1974. In the 1990s, under the significant redistribution of responsibility that occurred following Jenny Shipley's appointment as Prime Minister, responsibility for housing issues was divided between three ministers: the Minister for Social Services, Work and Income; the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation of New Zealand; and the Minister responsible for Housing New Zealand.[3] The Housing Corporation and Housing New Zealand merged into a single entity, Housing New Zealand Corporation, on 6 March 2002.[3]

A separate Minister for Building Issues (later Minister for Building and Construction) was established by the Fourth Labour Government as the Ministry of Housing was expanded to become the Department of Building and Housing. Under the Fifth National Government, the government's focus shifted from providing state houses to providing "social houses," which meant that income-related rent subsidies could be paid to non-governmental community housing providers.[4] While this Government had once combined social housing and building regulation responsibility in a combined "Building and Housing" portfolio, this was disestablished in December 2016 and divided between the Minister for Social Housing and the Minister for Building and Construction.[5]

Following the 2017 election, the Labour-New Zealand First-Green coalition government revamped the portfolio as the Minister of Housing and Urban Development. Phil Twyford was appointed as Housing Minister.[6] On 1 October 2018, Housing Minister Twyford launched a new government department called the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to advise the Government on housing and urban development issues.[7][8] During a 2019 cabinet reshuffle the housing and urban development portfolio was split into three positions; appointing Megan Woods as Minister of Housing, Kris Faafoi as Associate Minister of Housing (for rentals), and Twyford as Minister of Urban Development.[9] After the 2020 election Woods was confirmed as Minister of Housing while the urban development portfolio was abolished completely.[10] In early 2021, the Labour government was criticised by the opposition government and some housing industry stakeholders, who said the government has failed to address New Zealand's out-of-control house prices.[11]

List of ministers
Key

  Labour   National

No. Name Portrait Term of office Prime Minister
As Minister in charge of Housing
1 Tim Armstrong 13 December 1938 8 November 1942† Savage
Fraser
As Minister in charge of Housing Construction
2 Bob Semple 9 December 1942 December 1945 Fraser
1945–1949: See Minister of Works
3 Stan Goosman 13 December 1949 9 September 1953 Holland
As Minister of Housing
4 Bill Sullivan 9 September 1953 13 February 1957 Holland
5 Dean Eyre 13 February 1957 26 September 1957
Holyoake
6 John Rae 26 September 1957 12 December 1957
7 Bill Fox 12 December 1957 12 December 1960 Nash
(6) John Rae 12 December 1960 9 February 1972 Holyoake
Marshall
8 Eric Holland 9 February 1972 8 December 1972
9 Bill Fraser 8 December 1972 10 September 1974 Kirk
Rowling
10 Roger Douglas 10 September 1974 12 December 1975
11 George Gair 12 December 1975 8 March 1977 Muldoon
(8) Eric Holland 8 March 1977 13 December 1978
12 Derek Quigley 13 December 1978 15 June 1982
13 Tony Friedlander 15 June 1982 26 July 1984
14 Phil Goff 26 July 1984 24 August 1987 Lange
15 Helen Clark 24 August 1987 14 August 1989
Palmer
16 Jonathan Hunt 14 August 1989 2 November 1990
Moore
17 John Luxton 2 November 1990 29 November 1993 Bolger
18 Murray McCully 29 November 1993 31 August 1998
Shipley
1998–1999: See Minister for Social Services, Work and Income; Minister responsible for
Housing New Zealand; Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation of New Zealand
19 Mark Gosche 10 December 1999 12 May 2003 Clark
20 Steve Maharey 12 May 2003 (acting)
19 May 2003		 19 October 2005
21 Chris Carter 19 October 2005 5 November 2007
22 Maryan Street 5 November 2007 19 November 2008
23 Phil Heatley 19 November 2008 22 January 2013 Key
24 Nick Smith 22 January 2013 8 October 2014
As Minister for Building and Housing
(24) Nick Smith 8 October 2014 20 December 2016a Key
English
As Minister for Social Housing
25 Paula Bennett 8 October 2014 20 December 2016a Key
English
26 Amy Adams 20 December 2016 26 October 2017
As Minister of Housing and Urban Development
27 Phil Twyford 26 October 2017 27 June 2019 Ardern
As Minister of Housing
28 Megan Woods 27 June 2019 present Ardern
Hipkins

Notes
a. ^ ^ The Ministers for Building and Housing and Social Housing existed simultaneously during the period 8 October 2014 – 20 December 2016.

References
  1. "Ministerial List". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  2. "Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 2016" (PDF). Parliament.nz. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  3. Craig Spanhake (2006). Ministers and Members in the New Zealand Parliament: 1996–2005. Dunedin, New Zealand: Tarkwode Press.
  4. Nick Smith; Paula Bennett (16 May 2013). "Change from state housing to social housing". New Zealand Government. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  5. Patrick Gower (24 April 2017). "Bill English delicately knifes Nick Smith". Newshub. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  6. "Ministerial Portfolio: Housing and Urban Development". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  7. Walls, Jason (1 October 2018). "Twyford today launched the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, but what is it?". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  8. Twyford, Phil (8 June 2018). "New Housing and Urban Development Ministry". New Zealand Government. Scoop. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  9. Small, Zane (27 June 2019). "Jacinda Ardern's Cabinet reshuffle: Phil Twyford's Housing portfolio split into three". Newshub. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  10. "The full list of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's new Cabinet". Stuff. 2 November 2020.
  11. McCullough, Yvette (21 January 2021). "Jacinda Ardern's government facing continued criticism over its housing plans". NZ Herald. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
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