A Dunedin co-housing development could lead the way for the rest of the country and help with affordable housing, a Green Party co-leader says.
James Shaw spent a snowy day on the campaign trail in the city yesterday, where he headed to the site of the Toiora High Street Co-housing development.
After checking progress on the development, due to be opened early next year, he said the development was a great example for the rest of the country, and the party wanted to see more like it under way.
One of the party’s housing policies was changing the rules about KiwiSaver first-home deposits: ‘‘Because currently the rules mean that it makes it very difficult, or actually impossible, for you to be able to use your KiwiSaver towards a co-housing development like this.’’
Earlier in the day, Mr Shaw visited Waitati School to set out how his party would support local communities develop their own small-scale clean energy projects like wind farms and community solar systems.
If it were part of the next government, the party would push to create a new $250million community energy projects fund.
Waitati was the first school in New Zealand to connect to a local renewable energy network, through which surplus energy produced will be shared with the community.
That was the kind of innovative approach the energy fund would support, Mr Shaw said.
‘‘Previous governments have done little to enable local people to be part of our clean energy future, often favouring the big industry players instead.’’
