Housing New Zealand


Housing New Zealand was a Crown agency that provided public housing services for New Zealanders in need. It had Crown entity status under the Crown Entities Act 2004.
On 1 October 2019 it was merged with its development subsidiary HLC, and the KiwiBuild Unit to form a new Crown entity called Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities.

History

dates from 1894 with the establishment of the State Advances Office.
In 1905, Prime Minister Richard Seddon introduced the Workers Dwellings Act 1905, introducing public housing to New Zealand. This Act made New Zealand the first nation in the Western world to provide public housing for its citizens. The scheme ultimately failed in 1906 when the workers could no longer afford to pay the high rents asked by the Government for the properties.
The first official state house was opened in 1937 at 12 Fife Lane in Miramar in Wellington.
Housing Corporation of New Zealand was formed in 1974 through a merger of the State Advances Corporation and the Housing Division of the Ministry of Works. The Housing New Zealand Corporation in its current form is a statutory corporation that was established on 1 July 2001 under the Housing Corporation Act 1974, as amended by the Housing Corporation Amendment Act 2001. This was an amalgamation of Housing New Zealand Limited, Community Housing Limited, and the Ministry of Social Policy. In 2018 the government removed the word Corporation from the name and it is formally known as Housing New Zealand.

Responsibility

Housing New Zealand was the New Zealand Government's principal advisor on housing with its primary role as a provider and manager for housing, specialising in New Zealanders in need of housing assistance.
In 2011 this role was transferred to the Department of Building and Housing, and then in 2012 it was again transferred to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
In April 2014 the Ministry of Social Development took over the assessment of housing needs to determine who was entitled to social housing and their rent subsidy entitlement.

Management

Ministers responsible

The shareholding ministers of all Housing New Zealand subsidiaries are the Minister of Housing and the Minister of Finance.
The Minister of Housing/and Urban Development
Associate Minister of Housing and Urban Development/Minister for Building and Construction
The Minister of Finance
Chairpersons
The senior management of Housing New Zealand at 22 July 2017 was as follows.
NameTitleNotes
Andrew McKenzieChief Executive
Greg GroufskyDeputy Chief Executive
Paul CommonsChief Operating Officer
Rose Anne MacLeodChief Financial Officer
Patrick DoughertyGeneral Manager – Asset Development
Caroline ButterworthGeneral Manager – Communications and Stakeholders
Rowan MacraeGeneral Manager – People, Technology, and Change
Andrew BookerGeneral Manager – Business Innovation and Development
Gareth StivenGeneral Manager – Strategy

Chief executives