15 Dec 2021

MSD paying inflated rents for emergency accommodation 'wasteful spending' - Luxon

From Morning Report, 7:26 am on 15 December 2021

National Party leader Christopher Luxon says people have to be held accountable for what he says was unacceptable practices paying inflated rents to private landlords.

A scathing review by the Auditor General found that between November 2017 and June 2020, the Ministry for Social Development shelled out more than $37 million to private landlords and property managers to house homeless people.

The review says frontline Ministry staff "seemed to have little control over what they would pay" and that landlords were often able to name their price - in some cases, triple the market rate.

Luxon told Morning Report that the issue is symptomatic of a lot of wasteful spending of taxpayer money.