23 March 2014
Media Release
Coddington article is ill-informed and wrong
Southern Response is concerned at misinformation promoted in an opinion piece by Deborah Coddington in the Sunday Star
Times. The assertions in the article surrounding Southern Response’s completion statistics and percentages are simply
not correct.
“What is most disappointing about this type of commentary is that it can only be intended to undermine confidence in the
residential recovery in Canterbury” said Peter Rose, CEO of Southern Response.
“It would not have taken a lot of effort for Ms Coddington to speak to staff or view our website to understand the
progress in our build programme and seeing the number of our customers that have already fully settled their claims with
us,” said Peter Rose, CEO of Southern Response.
As at 28 February, Southern Response had fully settled 2,840 over cap claims (of 6,841). Of that number of fully settled
claims, Southern Response has completed 347 repairs and rebuilds.
Nearly 3,000 customers have elected to be part of the Southern Response build programme. In addition to the 347 builds
already completed, 394 Southern Response customers have completed the detailed planning process and their house is
currently under construction.
Another 1,077 Southern Response customers are in the immediate precursor to construction, which is detailed planning and
design, this group of our customers are working with Southern Response and Arrow claims staff, designers, engineers and
builder - preparing the necessary detailed documentation and paperwork to submit to local authorities in preparation for
giving the go-ahead to build.
Southern Response learnt early that detailed planning and design needs to be supported by good preparatory work,
understanding the possible challenges that the land and dwelling may present in the post-earthquake environment.
All other Southern Response customers in our build programme are currently moving through the ‘pre-design’ phase,
dealing with technical issues with the site or dwelling and solving them before moving the house claim into detailed
planning and design.
“You do have to ask yourself when you read articles like this, what is the author trying to achieve?” said Rose.
“We have offered many times for commentators to come meet with us and would happily have extended that invitation to Ms
Coddington. We’d had no direct contact from Coddington and the content in the article reflected that,” said Rose.