Council’s home insulation scheme will not help the poor

The Auckland Council today voted to make $3m available to financially assist up to 1,500 ratepayers to insulate their homes.

However Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer says the scheme won’t make one bit of difference to the tens of thousands of low-income tenants across Auckland living in cold and damp houses.

Mr Brewer says the Retrofit Your Home scheme, which has come out of Waitakere and will now be available region-wide, is tokenism at best.

“The scheme won’t help any renters because their landlords will not be prepared to pay the council an extra targeted rate to pay-off the assistance. This policy is more about making some councillors and staff feel good about themselves, rather than genuinely trying to help the most needy. This won’t help any low-income tenants in my ward of Orakei.

“It will only help a few middle-class homeowners who are already very well served by the Government’s EECA ‘Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart’ home insulation programme.

“This is like a pimple on a pumpkin and for all the hassle it will achieve little in the scheme of things. Let’s not forget that the Government has already committed $347m over four years to insulate over 180,000 homes and the subsidy scheme is working a treat. Since the scheme was launched in 2009, nearly 91,000 have been insulated.

“Can you image landlords ringing their tenants and telling them out of the kindness of their heart they’re prepared to pay an extra targeted rate for nine years to keep their tenants toasty and dry? It’s not going to happen. It will only appeal to a few on higher-incomes who can afford further rates rises and who may view it as a good investment for future capital gain.

“This whole scheme and voluntary targeted rate will only add administrative and staffing costs to the Auckland Council which will ultimately fall on the rest of Auckland’s ratepayers. Given the financial squeeze this council is already under, the scheme’s timing is ill-advised when you consider just how nominal any positive impact will be,” says Cameron Brewer.

Councillors Cameron Brewer and George Wood were the only councillors to vote against the council’s Retrofit Your Home scheme at a meeting of Auckland Council’s Governing Body today.

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