Minister of Housing (New Zealand) explained

Post:Minister of Housing
Flag:Flag of New Zealand.svg
Flagcaption:Flag of New Zealand
Insigniacaption:Coat of arms of New Zealand
Incumbent:Chris Bishop[1]
Incumbentsince:27 November 2023
Department:Ministry of Housing and Urban Development
Style:The Honourable
Member Of:Cabinet of New Zealand
Executive Council
Reports To:Prime Minister of New Zealand
Appointer:Governor-General of New Zealand
Termlength:At His Majesty's pleasure
Precursor:Minister of Housing and Urban Development
Formation:13 December 1938
First:Tim Armstrong
Salary:$288,900[2]
Website:www.beehive.govt.nz

The Minister of Housing is a minister in the New Zealand Government 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.

The present Minister is Chris Bishop.

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.

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, 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 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
No.NamePortraitTerm of officePrime Minister
As Minister in charge of Housing
1Tim Armstrong13 December 19388 November 1942†width=1 style="color:inherit;background:"Savage
Fraser
As Minister in charge of Housing Construction
2Bob Semple9 December 1942December 1945Fraser
1945–1949: See Minister of Works
3Stan Goosman13 December 19499 September 1953Holland
As Minister of Housing
4Bill Sullivan9 September 195313 February 1957Holland
5Dean Eyre13 February 195726 September 1957
Holyoake
6John Rae26 September 195712 December 1957
7Bill Fox12 December 195712 December 1960Nash
(6)John Rae12 December 19609 February 1972height=60px style="color:inherit;background:"Holyoake
Marshall
8 Eric Holland9 February 19728 December 1972
9Bill Fraser8 December 197210 September 1974height=60px style="color:inherit;background:"Kirk
Rowling
10Roger Douglas10 September 197412 December 1975
11George Gair12 December 19758 March 1977Muldoon
(8)Eric Holland8 March 197713 December 1978
12Derek Quigley13 December 197815 June 1982
13Tony Friedlander15 June 198226 July 1984
14Phil Goff26 July 198424 August 1987Lange
height=50 style="border-bottom:solid 0 grey; background:"15Helen Clark24 August 198714 August 1989
Palmer
height=50 style="border-bottom:solid 0 grey; background:"16Jonathan Hunt14 August 19892 November 1990
Moore
17John Luxton2 November 199029 November 1993Bolger
18Murray McCully29 November 199331 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
19Mark Gosche10 December 199912 May 2003Clark
20Steve Maharey12 May 2003 (acting)
19 May 2003
19 October 2005
21Chris Carter19 October 20055 November 2007
22Maryan Street5 November 200719 November 2008
23Phil Heatley19 November 200822 January 2013Key
24Nick Smith22 January 20138 October 2014
As Minister for Building and Housing
(24)Nick Smith8 October 201420 December 2016height=60px style="color:inherit;background:"Key
English
As Minister for Social Housing
25Paula Bennett8 October 201420 December 2016height=60px style="color:inherit;background:"Key
English
26Amy Adams20 December 201626 October 2017
As Minister of Housing and Urban Development
27Phil Twyford26 October 201727 June 2019Ardern
As Minister of Housing
height=50 style="border-bottom:solid 0 grey; background:"28Megan Woods27 June 201927 November 2023Ardern
height=15 style="border-top:solid 0 grey; background:"Hipkins
29Chris Bishop27 November 2023presentLuxon

Notes

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

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ministerial List. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 27 June 2019.
  2. Web site: Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 2016 . PDF . Parliament.nz . 28 February 2017.
  3. Book: Ministers and Members in the New Zealand Parliament: 1996–2005. Craig Spanhake. 2006. Tarkwode Press. Dunedin, New Zealand.
  4. Web site: Change from state housing to social housing. Nick Smith. Paula Bennett. New Zealand Government. 16 May 2013. 20 September 2017.
  5. News: Bill English delicately knifes Nick Smith. Patrick Gower. Newshub. 24 April 2017. 20 September 2017.
  6. Web site: Ministerial Portfolio: Housing and Urban Development. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 October 2017.
  7. News: Walls . Jason . Twyford today launched the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, but what is it? . 1 February 2019 . . 1 October 2018.
  8. News: Twyford . Phil . New Housing and Urban Development Ministry . 1 February 2019 . . . 8 June 2018.
  9. News: Small . Zane . Jacinda Ardern's Cabinet reshuffle: Phil Twyford's Housing portfolio split into three . 1 July 2019 . . 27 June 2019.
  10. Web site: The full list of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's new Cabinet . Stuff . en . 2 November 2020.
  11. Web site: McCullough . Yvette . Jacinda Ardern's government facing continued criticism over its housing plans . NZ Herald . 2021-01-21 . 2021-03-22.