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Greens want new standards for rental propertiesSaturday 24 July 2010 The Green Party is looking to impose more costs on landlords by having minimum standards for insulation and heating in rental properties. Green Party MP Gareth Hughes has drawn up the Warm Healthy Rental bill and will try and get it through parliament. "Everybody deserves warm healthy homes; it's only fair. My Warm Healthy Rental bill will ensure that all New Zealand's rental homes meet basic standards for warmth and insulation by 2018," he says. Hughes is the Green Party Housing spokesperson and is currently promoting the bill to students. He says the majority of the 1.6 million occupied houses in New Zealand do not have sufficient levels of insulation or efficient clean heating devices and a significant proportion do not meet World Health Organisation guide lines for adequate internal temperature. "Adequate housing is an essential that all New Zealanders should be guaranteed. We know that there are a lot of cold damp rentals out there and that lots of people have to live in them because they don't have the money to move. "This policy will not only protect people's health, it will protect the planet by lowering emissions from energy production. "Landlords will benefit by having the value of their properties increased when they insulate them, and it will encourage them to take advantage of the $323 million home insulation scheme that the Greens set up. Further information Energy Efficiency Conservation (Warm Healthy Rentals) Amendment Bill - http://www.greens.org.nz/bills/energy-efficiency-conservation-warm-healt... Retrofit interventions to enable healthy living conditions in existing New Zealand houses, EECA http://www.eeca.govt.nz/node/8663
Comments from our readersOn 26 July 2010 at 10:59 am aileen cutting said:
referring to the above, I do everything to keep my rentals in a good condition be maybe the greens should pass a bill to make tenants keep up their end of the bargain, its okay shooting the l/ord every chance they(anyone)has but one should look at the other end of the scale, tenants good and bad, theysign the paper to keep house ventialte,clean and damp free, do they no. On 26 July 2010 at 11:02 am aileen said:
Its a good ideal, but not all insutlation comes under the scheme , if one goes of the natural eco friendly that does not get covered by the scheme
also why plentise the l/lord by pushing to get floor/ceiling done when he/she could only probably afford to do the ceiling - answers to this question by the greens would be great On 27 July 2010 at 8:54 am Mark, Napier said:
The reality is that all these things cost (even after any subsidy). So if the Greens REALLY want this, then they must also support removal of rent control (i.e. removal of income-related rents on the part of Housing NZ, which is the biggest influencer of market rents. On 27 July 2010 at 2:33 pm Tony said:
Fancy Pant ideas ,not bad coming from a bunch of no-hopers who were caught gouging the NZ taxpayer with their secret property trusts. Add your comment:Showcase Auckland hotel Westin Lighter Quay in chaos One of Auckland's top hotels, the Westin Lighter Quay, is in chaos as unit titleholders and receivers square off over access to and revenue from 114 of its 172 rooms and its bar, restaurant and retail areas. Soft housing activity predicted for the rest of the year amid weak REINZ data Economists are predicting the housing market will stay soft for the rest of the year after Real Estate Institute data showed sales volumes stayed under pressure last month. Review may give investors some depreciation relief Commercial and industrial property investors should still be able to claim significant depreciation allowances, an asset depreciation expert says. Economist pushes out dates for next OCR hikes One economist has pushed out the date for the Reserve Bank’s next official cash rate hike citing recent downgrades to its forecasts for global GDP growth, including in Australia and New Zealand. |
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