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Download AudioAn Otago University researcher says Māori households are overrepresented in energy hardship.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment data shows a 1.9 percent dip in household energy consumption over the last year, with 10 percent of Maori households saying they could not afford to keep their home warm compared to 6 percent overall.
Kimberley O’Sullivan, a senior research fellow for He Kāinga Oranga / Housing and Health Research Programme and a member of MBIE’s Energy Hardship Reference Group, says initiatives like the Healthy Home Standards are a good start and need to be applied to all homes.
“Right now we’re still building houses that will require heating. The technology exists that we can build houses that don’t require any heating at all and could keep us warms so we need to continue to concentrate on increasing the quality of the homes we have and the homes we are building,” she says.
Dr O’Sullivan says unfair and unreasonable disconnection and reconnection charges are also contributors to energy poverty.
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