Under OIA we received a briefing sent from Kainga Ora (AH 23 088) sent to Minister of Housing Chris Bishop.
The briefing was sent 4th December 2023 and did NOT contain all the fact, one important fact was that the project was already increased to $7.5m, not $5.2m as per the briefing. The increase had been updated in May 2023 and Kāinga Ora said they would fund this shortfall by selling houses.
Yesterday we received word that the project at Teitei had been cancelled due to financial overruns. The FAQ included with the letter stated that a review was completed in January 2024 to confirm this and as such funding was not available to continue.
This is such a misleading statement, and what has become expected of Kāinga Ora, putting a PR spin on everything to make them look good. They fail to mention that they had known about this budget blowout since they signed up for CIP funding, they requested CIP update the reporting to reflect the $2.3m increase, just a month after signing.