Christopher Luxon: Prime Minister on the tax expectations likely to be in the Budget and the Government's call to action around Kāinga Ora housing

The Prime Minister says the Government is calling for action over the 20% of Kāinga Ora houses left vacant for a month or more.  

The Government's issued a Letter of Expectation to Kāinga Ora outlining a series of areas where it needs improvement.  

Luxon says there's a whole bunch of homes not ready to let because they need repairs or need to be rebuilt.  

But, he told Hosking, he's concerned it's taking too long to get people into the about 600 homes that are currently available.  

He says one of the things in the letter was directing Kāinga Ora to turn homes around faster and get people into them. 

The Prime Minister also says there won't be any new taxes in the Budget, and tax relief will happen. 

The Government will unveil its first Budget in May.  

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has pushed out surplus expectations. 

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has warned of a multi-billion-dollar gap between what was promised and what can be delivered in the budget. 

Christopher Luxon told Mike Hosking that they're determined to deliver low and middle income working New Zealanders tax relief.  

He says he'd love it to be effective this July, they just have to go through a cabinet decision making process to ensure they can do it. 

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