Ratepayers rack up $11m debt in Hot Swap scheme
Clean-air move hailed as success
Rotorua ratepayers have racked up more than $11 million of debt to the regional council in the past decade through a scheme to replace non-compliant burners.
Under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Air Quality Control Bylaw for Rotorua, in January it became illegal to use wood burners installed before September 2005 in homes within the Rotorua Airshed — a geographical area where air quality is poor.
While owning one is not illegal, residents are not allowed to use them or coal burners, multi-fuel burners, chip heaters, coal ranges, cookers, Marshall heaters and indoor open fires.
The council began retrofitting homes with replacement heating and insulation in 2008 and has offered financial schemes to help.
The Hot Swap Scheme, started in 2010, sees the cost of supply and installation of replacement heating go on to a property’s rates to be paid back over 10 years.
Figures released to the Rotorua Daily Post show the council issued 3041 Hot Swap loans worth a cumulative $11,367,237 including GST from its launch to April 30 this year.
The largest number of loans issued in a year was in 2012/13 when 471 worth $1.9m were issued.
Some of this will have already been paid back. The Daily Post has requested information about how much is still owed.
The council also provided ultralow emission burner or heat pump subsidies through the low-income heating grant scheme which ran from 2014 to April 30 this year.
In that time it subsidised 52 removals to the value of $32,452 and 260 removal and replacements to the value of $89,741, both excluding GST. The subsidised replacements included 98 heat pumps and 162 ultra-low emission burners.
Solid fuel burners removed under Hot Swap loans were not subsidised.
Only owner-occupiers who met criteria such as holding a community services card and having a noncompliant wood or coal burner as the only permanent form of heating in the living area were eligible.
The council spent less than was budgeted on the project overall. In the 10-year timeframe, it spent just over $5m on the clear air project, well below its $7.9m budget.
Rotorua General constituency councillor Lyall Thurston said it had been a “phenomenal success”.
“To get people to move over and it was an assistance programme but it’s been phenomenal and I think it’s gone a long way to improving air quality here in Rotorua which is the second-worst in the country after Christchurch.”
Thurston said the programme was all about helping people and encouraging them to “join the battle” to improve the area’s air quality.
He said he hadn’t heard of any people pushing back against having to go into debt in order to become compliant.
“We’re first to admit changing heating comes at a cost and a degree of inconvenience. This was rolled out some years ago acknowledging these factors assisting people to have a warm, comfortable environment going forward.”
According to the regional council website, Rotorua has the worst winter air quality of any airshed in the North Island.
About 228 tonnes of fine particulates are discharged annually into Rotorua’s air by people heating their homes over winter.
The volume of particulates being released needs to be reduced by 60 tonnes to meet the safe and acceptable standards set by the Ministry for Environment.
Toi Te Ora Public Health previously said air pollution was a recognised cancer-causing agent and poor air quality had short and long-term impacts on health.
There were an estimated nine deaths, seven hospital admissions and 12,500 activity restricted days attributable to air pollution each year, shows the Health and Air Pollution in New Zealand study.
Toi Te Ora said this was at a social and economic cost to the community of $35m.
It said while it was difficult and complex to attribute these numbers to air pollution, Health and Air Pollution in NZ used sophisticated statistical models to produce these estimates of health loss.
Rotorua Budget Advisory Service did not want to comment because most of its clients were renters and so did not have to pay to replace heating.