Labour in favour of choosy state house tenants

Stuff reports:

Plans to bump people off the state housing list if they turn down too many properties are “an unwarranted attack on the country’s most vulnerable people”, Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford says.

Really? So does Labour think a prospective tenant should be able to refuse every house offered to them?

Bennett told a housing conference on Thursday morning the Government was considering a stand-down period for those who rejected state houses without good reason.

She said officials had told her over 400 people turned down properties in the last year for unacceptable reasons, such as “birds chirping in the trees next door, wanting a bigger back yard for a trampoline, and not liking the colour a door was painted”.

400 is a small minority of tenants, but it is not an insignificant number.