Elderly couple no longer in the cold
Wattie Meadowcroft has survived prostate cancer, four kidney operations and open heart surgery.
‘‘You name it, I’ve had it. I’m the bionic man, they call me.’’
The 83-year-old needs a warm home to stay healthy, but his Christchurch property is draughty despite having a heat pump installed and plastic sheeting fitted under the floor about nine years ago.
He and wife Bev, 80, have spent 43 of their 60 years-married in their cold Linwood home.
‘‘He’s the biggest stirrer out, he is,’’ said Bev of her husband.
‘‘That’s what keeps me going,’’ replied Wattie with a chuckle.
But, as of next Tuesday, Wattie will no longer have to rely on his sharp wit and sense of humour to keep going. The Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, which launched yesterday, will mean the Meadowcrofts’ is one of the first of 52,000 properties to be insulated during the next four years.
The plan will cost the taxpayer $142 million and cover two thirds of the cost of under-floor and ceiling insulation for owner-occupied homes. It will be available to people with a Community Services card, a health condition or those living in areas with the highest deprivation levels.
The Meadowcrofts have Community Service cards and have done all the right things to try to keep their home warm. In addition to the heat pump and plastic sheeting, their windows are double-glazed. That has not fixed the draught that they believe insulation will.
On a sunny winter day, the couple sit outside at their home to catch the rays, as it can often be warmer for them.
Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods said 10,000 homes would be insulated in the first year, before the Government introduced heating grants from July 2019. She was unable to say how many Kiwi homes would remain insufficiently insulated after the programme’s completion.
Groups like Community Energy Action in Christchurch, which hosted yesterday’s launch, had begun rolling the scheme out on behalf of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.
Woods said the previous Government’s programme, which subsidised 25 per cent of the cost, failed to meet its goal of 20,000 homes because it was originally only available to landlords.
‘‘The subsidy at 25 per cent [also] just wasn’t enough. For the people who we can make the biggest interventions for, in terms of health outcomes, [there] wasn’t enough uptake there.
‘‘Low-income families, young children and older Kiwis are especially vulnerable to the impacts of living in cold, damp homes . . . That’s a really huge personal cost to families but it also adds cost and pressure to the health system.’’
Age Concern Canterbury chief executive Simon Templeton said winter warmth was a ‘‘massive issue’’ for older people, for multiple reasons.
New Zealand’s housing stock was poorly designed and the cost of heating and insulation was too much for many.
‘‘Another thing people sometimes forget is when you are working age you’re often out and about during the day, in a warm office or whatever.
‘‘Older people are often at home all day so . . . they have to have the heating on all day. When it’s uninsulated, that’s the whole day of heating disappearing out the walls, out the ceiling and out the floor.’’
Templeton said the extension from a 25 per cent subsidy was ‘‘a bit of a game-changer’’ and the cost would be manageable for a lot more people.
Canterbury District Health Board planning and funding team leader Greg Hamilton said the initiative was an opportunity to ‘‘accelerate’’ the work the DHB had been doing around finding vulnerable people and ‘‘changing the environment they live in’’.
‘‘There’s a big job to be done, and this is a great way to get it started,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s still a lot to go after this 52,000, but I think 52,000 is a fantastic start. There’s also the issue of how we find the right people and how we get the workforce in place to get it done.
‘‘I think we’ve got a lot on our plate.’’
‘‘Older people are often at home all day so . . . they have to have the heating on all day. When it’s uninsulated, that’s the whole day of heating disappearing out the walls, out the ceiling and out the floor.’’ Age Concern Canterbury chief executive Simon Templeton