Insulation grant extended to landlords
The Government will extend the eligibility for home insulation grants to lowincome homeowners, landlords, and tenants with high health needs.
The Warm Up New Zealand Healthy Homes insulation grants will provide 50 per cent of the cost of ceiling and underfloor insulation for those already eligible.
Energy and Resources Minister Judith Collins said landlords would need to insulate their rental properties by July 1, 2019. ‘‘I would advise them to get in quick and secure a grant while these are available. It’s a case of first in, first served,’’ she said.
Insulating a house saved on average $854 a year in health costs for a Community Service Card holder, she said.
The programme was due to end last June but Budget 2016 allocated $18 million to extend the Warm Up NZ programme for a further two years until the end of June 2018.
Acting head of the Property Council Matt Paterson said the grant extension was a welcome move by the Government.
‘‘It makes sense that we would extend assistance to low-income tenants and homeowners as often they are the ones affected the most,’’ Paterson said.
But Labour energy spokesperson Megan Woods said this was a political move by National ahead of the general election, as no new funding had been added to the programme.
‘‘The Government is scrambling to try and fix up their failure to add eligibility for homeowners earlier and failing to deliver funding before next year’s end date,’’ Woods said.
She said the Government should have used up about half of its funding for the issue but had contributed less than a quarter of its funding.
The latest figures from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority revealed only 3700 homes nationwide had been insulated using the $1500 subsidy.
Woods said Labour’s policy would provide $150m a year in grants after three years for homeowners and landlords to deal with insulation, ventilation and heating issues without income testing.
That would be a total of $1.2 billion over 10 years, which was enough for 600,000 grants of $2000 each, Woods said.
Over the past eight years about 300,000 homes have been insulated through the Warm Up NZ programme.