John Key: Government proud of progress for warmer, drier homes
The Warm Up New Zealand scheme was set up as a four-year programme to insulate 188,500 homes. Photo / Thinkstock
By any measure, the National Government's home insulation scheme launched in 2009 has been a success.
So far, more than 172,000 houses have been insulated.
As has been noted in the Herald on Sunday series on this topic in recent weeks, the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart programme has many flow-on benefits in terms of positive social and health outcomes for families living in warmer, drier homes.
We set up the scheme as a four-year programme to insulate 188,500 homes - but we are now doing an extra 40,000 thereby taking the total to around 230,000.
Nearly half of the houses done are for people on low incomes with a Community Services Card.
By the end of the current scheme, we expect to have insulated more than 100,000 low-income homes - an increase of 40,000 over the original forecast.
I acknowledge what the Herald on Sunday has been reporting - that cost is a factor for some and means they are not taking up the scheme for their homes.
I also acknowledge that while nearly 25,000 properties done under the scheme are rental properties, this is still a low uptake by landlords.
However, one thing I can say is that the Government is seeking to get its own house in order as the country's largest landlord.
That will be done by fulfilling our 2011 election promise to insulate every state house where practicable that was built before 1978, when insulation standards were introduced.
The aim is to do this by the end of next year - which will deliver obvious benefits for the predominantly low-income people in state housing.
Once our house is in order, we can have a conversation about considering regulations and/or incentives so private rental accommodation that does not have insulation is upgraded.
But while benefits of the scheme are recognised, no decisions have been made by the Government about extending it and I can't give any guarantees.
Since becoming the Government in 2008, we have made a large amount of progress with home insulation, despite the huge financial challenges we continue to face.
We've worked with our confidence and supply partners, the Maori Party, to target 20,000 low-income homes for insulation.
We've also worked with the Green Party on the insulation programme as part of our Memorandum of Understanding.
Working together, we've been able to fund the scheme to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars since it started, despite the global financial crisis and a multi-billion dollar rebuild in Canterbury.
I am proud of the progress that we have achieved in insulating homes, particularly considering these challenges we have been facing.
A "Best of." list might include:
1. Making more people redundant than any other employer
2. Growing the exodus to Australia of our best and brightest
3. Maintaining zero growth for New Zealand
4. Making 90% of New Zealand poorer by restricting wages and raising GST
5. Selling off New Zealand's laws to the highest bidder
6. Taking away basic rights and protections for workers
7. Supporting John Banks
8. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on consultants
9. Not sacking Paula Bennett and Judith Collins for leaks of private information
10. Pushing ahead with asset sales when 85% of the country are against them
11. Charter Schools - a failed experiment elsewhere that have been introduced for ideology and not for the benefit of our kids
12. Ignoring the advice of experts when it doesn't suit policy such as National Standards
13. Cutting Health spending to such an extent that they are struggling to deliver on anything except government-imposed targets
14. Making dodgy deals that are described by legal experts as 'riding rough-shod over New Zealand's laws' such as the Sky City pokie deal
15. Encouraging mining on National Parks
Insulation is a good start but houses in colder parts of the country also need double glazing and central heating. John Key says he's willing to consider "regulations and/or incentives" to make private landlords insulate their investment properties. I vote for regulation.
Why should the taxpayer pay to improve rental properties, so that landlord can pocket the capital gains? NZ already subsidises property investors enough. I can't believe the comments in this newspaper from landlords who say they won't insulate their properties unless the government foots the bill.
It should be illegal to rent out a property without meeting reasonable energy efficiency standards. I spent 10 years as a tenant in Dunedin and Wellington and I remember it was practically imposssible to find a property that wasn't damp and cold.