Let’s see that moderate solution, then

A group of southern flatters taped a Watties vegetables packet above the toilet cistern. Frozen peas? Very droll.

Even those among us who might smile upon scarfies living the spartan life in chill student flats aren’t going to extend those grins to, say, the cold and mouldy Otara home that a coronial inquest has found contributed to the death of a two-year-old child.

The Government says it isn’t necessarily opposed to WOF checks for rentals. But Finance Minister Bill English describes those proposed by Opposition parties as ‘‘extreme measures’’ that would further drive up rents and push housing stock out of the market. English and Housing Minister Nick Smith can feel free to impress us by coming up with an altogether superior, more flexible and moderate means to the end. But tick tock. Patience is no virtue while quite so many men, women and, especially, children are sickening in the meantime.

Government efforts like the Warm Up NZ scheme have resulted in more than 200,000 houses being insulated since 2009. Precious few of those were private rentals. The returns on investment just weren’t sufficient to bestir landlords who whine that they need the carrot of tax incentives. Opposition parties howl that it would take the wielded stick of a WOF scheme. And, rather less audibly, the occupants themselves wheeze for help.

Landlords remind us that sometimes it’s not the home itself but the occupants who are the problem. Heaters that aren’t turned on won’t heat anywhere. Curtains drawn all day will deny free warming sunlight. Windows that stay resolutely shut will encourage condensation and mould in even well-insulated homes. If some of the misery is self-imposed, this still doesn’t get near the real heart of the problem. Our housing stock has far too many awful properties and we all know it.

And if heaters are turned off, it’s hardly because the stoneybroke among us haven’t figured out where the on switches are. They have nothing against warmth if they can afford it.

Let’s not take the approach that we need to have a collective tolerance, or supreme patience, for truly inadequate accommodation so that people with truly inadequate incomes have somewhere to live – until, of course, they at last feel motivated to knuckle down and earn a better living and the rewards it brings.

Like better health.