Council to present submission on healthy homes Bill

The Dunedin City Council will personally hand over its submission on the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill while pushing for stronger measures to protect residential tenants.

Councillors debated the submission at yesterday's council finance committee meeting.

The Bill was introduced by Labour leader Andrew Little and passed its first reading last month with support from the Greens, New Zealand First, the Maori Party and United Future.

If passed into law, it will require landlords to upgrade underfloor and ceiling insulation to 2008 standards within five years for existing leases or within a year for new leases.

The committee agreed to support the Bill, but call for tougher measures in its submission.

Councillors agreed the submission would be presented in person after the recommendation of Cr David Benson-Pope.

"The value of presenting it in person is huge,'' he said.

"I think we should take the opportunity where possible.''

In the submission, the council called for tougher measures, including safety provisions, to be the aim for parliament.

"The Dunedin City Council notes the safety and security elements of the Rental WOF are absent from the Bill and proposes that a Rental WOF should be the end goal to ensure that people renting their homes have warm, healthy and safe accommodation,'' the submission says.

"The University of Otago Rental WOF research indicates that the median cost for upgrading rental homes to the Rental WOF standard is around $8000, although generally the specific heating and insulation costs are much less. As research on the cost-benefit of the Rental WOF shows, savings in health spending, energy consumption and a reduction in hazards far outweigh the costs to individual landlords.''

The council also called for the maximum period of compliance to be reduced from five years to three years.

"This will more quickly deliver health benefits for tenants while giving landlords and the insulation and heating industry sufficient time to achieve compliance,'' the submission says.

The submission also suggested appointing some form of independent assessor so tenants would not need to enforce the requirement of the Bill themselves through the tenancy tribunal.

The councillors engaged in little debate about the submission and those present unanimously supported it, with the exceptions of Crs Hilary Calvert and Andrew Whiley, who abstained as they owned rental properties and felt it was a conflict of interest.

Speaking to the submission, council community adviser Paul Coffey said the Bill was especially pertinent considering the age and quality of Dunedin's housing stock.

"One-third of all housing in the city is rental properties, but they house half of the population,'' he said.

"Our housing stock is older than anywhere else in the country.

"Twenty percent of our stock was built before the 1920s.

"People on lower incomes are living in rental accommodations and at times those accommodations aren't brilliant and this will help improve that.''

The Bill was opposed by National and Act at its first reading and it passed by only one vote.

The Bill is before the government administration committee and public submissions on it close on June 23.

The committee is expected to report back on the Bill on November 4 and a date for its second reading is yet to be set.

timothy.brown@odt.co.nz

 

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