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The government is concerned about the perception that its new housing policy will raise rents, according to an email from the Beehive accidentally sent to Things.
The email, from the Prime Minister’s Chief Press Secretary, Andrew Campbell, was sent to the press and policy teams in the offices of Housing Minister Megan Woods and Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
Campbell said it’s a regular email she sends on a Monday morning, gathering information from Beehive’s offices to brief Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on any issues she may face at her Monday afternoon press conference.
The email offers a rare insight into Beehive’s turnaround operation.
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“I guess rents will go up today after the cab,” Campbell said. He also noted that “some” of the correspondence Ardern had received from voters was related to rent increases.
Campbell sought advice on six topics:
“Can we get a table that increases the rent year after year since we are in government year after year compared to the increase in wages and house prices? [sic].
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
An email from the prime minister’s chief press secretary, Andrew Campbell, was accidentally sent to Stuff.
“My understanding is that rents have been in line with median wage growth and obviously much less than house price growth,” Campbell wrote.
“Do we know if our rent increases have been in line with National’s increases? If they have been, it would be good to point it out, ”he said.
Rental data is very difficult to collect. It is difficult to obtain data on the small increases in rent that landlords impose on existing tenants. The government’s main measure only captures a snapshot because it records the rent when a new bond is posted. This means that it doesn’t capture when a landlord pays rent.
With National, the national median rent increased from $ 290 a week in late 2008 to $ 400 in September 2017. The national median rent is now $ 495 a week.
So far, the question of whether rents will rise as a result of the policy has generated a variety of opinions from economists. Many think rents will continue to rise, although many acknowledge that the contortions of the rental market make it difficult to draw a direct line between policy changes and rent increases.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley told Newshub that “you are more likely to see rents go up faster than they have already been.”
Infometrics senior economist Brad Olsen told 1 News that rents were going up anyway.
“Rents will go up, but they won’t go up exponentially just because of that policy,” he said.
Talking to Things Regarding the incident, Campbell said email was a standard part of Beehive’s Monday morning routine.
“Every Monday I send an email to the offices requesting information on the topics that are likely to come out.”
“There is nothing unusual about it, it is a standard email requesting information on issues that are likely to come up after the taxi,” he said.
Campbell’s email requested a list of steps the government had taken “to limit the impact of the rent increases.”
Ardern had already confronted the media on the issue of increasing rents and suggested that rents did not increase as a result of the government’s healthy housing standards, although Campbell’s email note that his office wanted evidence to show that he was right.
“PM also spoke this morning about the argument that rents would increase as a result of Healthy Homes and suggested that this did not happen, is there evidence that we can point to to show that that did not happen?” he said.
Campbell also wanted to show that the phase-in period for interest deductibility could allow them to argue that “there is no need for an increase in rental prices.”
You will probably see a little more of the government rejecting the argument that rents will go up. Campbell’s email asked staff to compile a list of quotes from economists that the government could use to “argue against the assumption that rents will go up.”
He said those arguments would be posted on social media and relayed to Ardern staff who respond to voter correspondence.
Unfortunately, before he got that far, a member of Woods’ office staff made a copy of Things to an email that forwards the email to your computer.
