Over on The Standard, James Henderson points out the obvious: English has a solution right in front of him, but is too ideologically blinkered to see it:
Get the bloody government to do it, Bill. You own plenty of land, you’ve got the capital, and the State isn’t (or shouldn’t be) out to make a quick buck so it can do low-return affordable housing. Just do what the State used to do – come up with a few dozen (energy-efficient, eco-friendly) modular designs and get building.
With efficiencies of scale, you can get the homes built for around $200,000 each (that’s what a basic eco-home from Lockwood costs). Think of the number of houses that a billion a year could build – and that’s chump change to a government that has spent $280 billion in four years. And how many jobs would that create?
Its obvious, its sensible, if run properly its revenue-neutral (in that the government will be selling the houses it builds to first home-buyers and social housing providers). But National's "do nothing, leave the market to sort it out" ideology means English just can't even imagine it - even to address a clear case of market failure.
We need a government which will actually act to address our social problems. National is not and never can be such a government. Time for a change.