The Minister for Housing, John Hargreaves, has vindicated the position of the Canberra Liberals by confirming the cost of increasing social housing stock to 10% would cost more than $900 million, Alistair Coe, the Shadow Minister for Housing said today.

“In attempting to attack the ACT Greens, Mr Hargreaves has highlighted the real cost of the Labor-Greens agreement to boost social housing stock to 10 per cent of all Canberra homes,” Mr Coe said.

“In a time of economic instability and record levels of deficit, the cost of this one area of the Labor-Greens agreement is extraordinary.

“In his press release, Mr Hargreaves said;

‘They [the Greens] would like to have 10% of all properties in Canberra in social housing hands. This would mean that to bring the stock to this percentage the community would have to find nearly $900 million… These economics just don’t stack up.’
(Press release 22/6/09)

“Mr Hargreaves is exactly right, the economics don’t stack up and the Chief Minister was the one who signed up to the agreement.

“I have been saying for a number of months that this one particular part of the agreement that will cost taxpayers $900 million, and the longer it takes to reach the 10 per cent quota the more it will cost the ACT taxpayers.

“‘To reach the 10 per cent target, the mass purchase of 1500 homes would send house prices soaring and make Canberra even more unaffordable for first home buyers.

“Yet again Mr Hargreaves is at odds with his Chief Minister. Mr Hargreaves has realised the basic economics of this particular part of the agreement and the extreme cost to taxpayers,” said Mr Coe.