Housing Retrofit Project Gets Green Light

Waitakere City Council has given the green light to partnering with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) to deliver the city’s housing retrofit project.

Those homeowners who wish to or have already undertaken some form of retrofitting will be able to apply for a loan from council to carry out approved retrofitting work.

Homeowners who take up the opportunity will be charged a special targeted rate to repay the loan, in addition to their rates.

“People can already access government funding to contribute towards clean heating options or to insulate their homes. What our programme will do is provide the top-up funding to allow homeowners to take it a step further,” says Policy and Strategy Committee Chair Penny Hulse.

“At the heart of this is ensuring Waitakere people live in healthy, warm and dry homes and we want to encourage this in an energy-efficient and sustainable way. Homeowners who want to do insulation, clean heat, install water saving devices, learn about waste reduction or other sustainabilility measures could benefit.”

Council has funding available for one year and whether it continues beyond that period is something the new Auckland Council will decide.

Waitakere will be the first council in the region to offer this kind of loan scheme.

“This is a really important programme that will have huge benefits for a lot of people’s health and wellbeing and will contribute to improving the quality of our homes,” says Cr Hulse.

“Our staff have already been working with Beacon Pathway Limited and other councils and are happy to take the lead on this and will certainly be recommending the new Auckland Council include it in its plans for the whole region.”

The new programme is proposed to start after 1 July, 2010 and staff are finalising a number of details over the next few months.

Homeowners wanting to access the funding must be Waitakere City Council ratepayers and the money must be used to retrofit a residential home in Waitakere.

More information on how to access funding will be published shortly. Homeowners can register their interest by sending their names and contact details to:

Housing Retrofit Project
c/- Strategic Planning
Waitakere City Council
Private Bag 93109,
Henderson 0650

ENDS

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