The Front Page: $1 billion a year could be saved by improving quality of NZ homes

Cold, damp and unhealthy homes lead to avoidable health costs. Photo / Getty Images

An expert in public health and housing says that New Zealand could save around a $1 billion by improving the quality of our housing stock.

Philippa Howden-Chapman, an Otago University professor of public health specialising in housing, health and wellbeing, tells The Front Page podcast there are real economic imperatives to getting this right.

A study from Citizens Advice in the UK has found raising the minimum energy efficiency standards of homes there could add £40 billion to their economy by the end of the decade.

Howden-Chapman says that while Aotearoa has moved in the right direction with the release of the healthy homes standard two years ago, there is still room for improvement.

She also says that our economy could stand to benefit enormously, not only from improving the warmth but also the safety of our homes.

“We know that more than 1800 people go to hospital each year because of the cold in their homes, and then when you add in dampness and mould, you have 40,000 each year.

“The other area that people forget about is that most ACC claims are due to home injuries because the home isn’t safe. People have slips and trips and this leads to around 40,000 claims each year. The estimate we have is that the direct cost to the public sector and taxpayers is around $141 million annually. Then if you count the deaths attributable to cold housing, you’re looking at an additional 200 deaths. So overall, the cost to society is about a billion dollars a year.”

She says the two groups most vulnerable are children and older people.

“There are 683 children hospitalised each year, largely due to cold, damp and mouldy homes. Even more worrying is that 71 per cent are also re-hospitalised. So if they’re sent back to the home that was cold and damp, this just continues as rolling readmissions all the time.”

The issue of re-hospitalisation is also prevalent when it comes to the elderly and increases the likelihood of death.

Howden-Chapman says that addressing these problems starts by improving the quality of life people are experiencing at home.

“It’s pretty clear that the house is the place to intervene if you want to stop respiratory, cardiac conditions and lower pharmaceutical bills for the country as a whole.”

UPDATE: The Government acknowledges the economic and social importance of this issue and is pushing hard to improve conditions in homes across the country. In addition to the healthy homes standard, Labour has also put even more money into the Warmer Kiwi Homes policy, which focuses on the installation of insulation and efficient heaters. Since its launch in 2018, this policy has seen more than 100,000 installations of insulation and efficient heaters. The Warmer Kiwi Homes policy, which offers Government grants to cover up to 80 per cent of costs involved in the installation of insulation or efficient heating, was extended in the 2023 Budget.

So what else can we do to improve Kiwi homes? Are leaky homes still causing problems? And what simple steps can families take to keep their homes warm this winter?

Listen to the full episode of The Front Page podcast for a full discussion on these issues.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It’s presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist, with a background in business reporting, who joined the Herald in 2017.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.