The problem with Chris Bishop’s plan to flood the housing market
The Spinoff Daily, Friday July 5
Ahiahi mārie, welcome to The Spinoff Daily.
Today on The Spinoff: Sam Hayes and Mike McRoberts look back in awe and sorrow as Newshub’s final bulletin approaches. Plus: How Vera Ellen got a reputation for telling audiences to shut it, and Tara Ward watches a local workplace comedy like we’ve never seen before.
But first: Joel MacManus on the problem with Chris Bishop’s plan to flood the housing market.
“Housing minister Chris Bishop says he wants to flood the housing market. On Thursday, he unveiled a list of policies to deregulate the market and make it easier to build homes. His description of a ‘flood’ evokes an image of the government turning a hose on full bore, spraying new developments all over the country.
A more accurate metaphor would be a stream. The government can’t make people build houses any more than it can legislate the price of them. The amount of water (investment in new housing) depends on many factors: interest rates, labour markets, supply chains. The government can’t control the flow, but can remove some blockages to help the water flow more easily. It can’t point it like a hose, but it can build stopbanks or eddies to guide the water in the direction where it has the greatest potential benefit.”
Listen to episode 4 of Juggernaut – ‘Quantum Leap’
Roger Douglas’s radical overhaul of the NZ economy kicks through the gears. Corporatisation sends thousands of workers to the dole queue. Labour is returned to power in 1987 and when the global crash hits, Douglas seizes the opportunity to go harder, and go faster. Follow now to make sure you get every episode.
Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.
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