Social housing priorities

The Herald reports:

The Government is poised to crack down on people on the state house waiting list who turn down a house offered to them, Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett said at the National Party conference in Auckland.

They will drop down the list unless there was good reason — at present there are no repercussions.

Anyone who turned down a house for insufficient reason should not remain ahead of someone else on the list, she said.

Mrs Bennett said that in the year from November 2013 to 2014, a total of 3,081 people on the waiting list for a state house declined a property offered to them.

She later released figures showing that 7 per cent of them had declined a property three or more times.

“They often declined because they didn’t like the neighbour, or they didn’t think the fence was good enough and there is no repercussion for people who decline houses.

“I’m sorry, but that sort of thing has to stop.”

Agreed. Unless there is a really good reason, you need to take the house offered to you.