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Labour’s housing spokesperson says the home insulation subsidy scheme has failed to make a dent in the number of cold and damp houses being rented out.
Phil Twyford says the National Government’s mismanagement of Housing New Zealand and its failure to address the issue of affordable housing means Māori and working class people are getting pushed into substandard housing in the private rental market.
He says it’s creating a health crisis, particularly with respiratory disease from children living in uninsulated houses.
He says the next Labour-led Government will impose minimum insulation standards on private landlords.
"There’s been a very generous subsidy scheme over recent years but mostly it has been taken up by owner occupiers because the landlords have no economic incentive to do it. The market is so tight they can charge these higher rents. But we are just going to say 'enough is enough. If you want to rent a house out, it's got to be insulated and it's got to be efficiently heated," Mr Twyford says.
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