Photo: 123RF
A Reducing Energy Hardship conference in New Plymouth this past week has been told all New Zealand homes should come with an energy performance rating.
The poor condition of many New Zealand properties has been identified as one of the biggest factors affecting households struggling to heat their homes.
Dr Kimberley O'Sullivan - a senior research fellow at the University of Otago - told about 200 delegates from government departments, energy companies, iwi and social agencies that an energy performance certification scheme for all housing in New Zealand could in the long-term help improve the housing stock.
"One thing this would do is increase information about how healthy their home is and maybe give an indication of around about how much it might cost them to run that house in energy terms, so what they might expect to pay for the electricity bill on that house."
O'Sullivan said certification would help identify where the least energy efficient homes were and allow them to be targeted to bring them up to standard.
"And potentially years down the track, we'd be able to say we don't want landlords running a business renting those low energy rating houses to families who can't afford to run those homes and be healthy."
Kimberley O'Sullivan. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ
O'Sullivan said there was international evidence that people who couldn't afford to heat their houses suffered a significant increase in the risk of severe mental health issues.
"If you look overseas in terms of where we are at with our housing and building performance we are really still lagging way, way behind. For example, Ireland is doing much better than we are in Aotearoa.
"In terms of energy hardship we are just starting to grapple with that, so we've got a lot of mahi to do."
She said the conference would help.
"It's amazing we've got to the stage where we have this many people in the room who first of all understand what energy hardship is and are already doing work to improve things in their local areas."
O'Sullivan - who did her PhD on the rate of disconnections amongst people using prepay electricity accounts - also wanted to see better data available on these, so it was possible to measure more accurately how many people using such accounts got cut off.
Keri Brown is the chair of the Energy Hardship Expert Panel set up about 18 months ago as part of the government's Electricity Price Review.
The panel's goal is that all children in New Zealand are in households that can access and afford the energy they need, regardless of income or location.
Brown said the panel had identified the condition of New Zealand homes as one of the biggest contributors to energy hardship, alongside affordability.
"We have a long, long history of cold, damp homes and we haven't kept up with getting them up to standard and making them warmer."
She said there had been submissions calling for energy certification of homes, but pointed out there were already problems getting the current regulations adhered to.
The panel's goal is that all children in New Zealand are in households that can access and afford the energy they need, regardless of income or location. Photo: 123RF
"When every day families have a cold and damp home, the option is to go to the Tenancy Tribunal and their rights are not always enacted to meet the Healthy Homes Standards.
"So really strong support is needed so that the Healthy Homes Standards are not only complied with, but monitored as well to ensure there is action taken when a house is not meeting those standards."
Brown said the Warmer Kiwi Homes scheme, which offered subsidies to low income families for heating and insulation, was making a difference and she welcomed the extra money for the programme in the budget.
"So, there's big efforts being made on warming up our homes, but we still have a long way to go to get them all up to standard so that they meet those Healthy Home criteria."
Keri Brown. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ
The Energy Hardship Expert Panel was still taking submissions and would make its final recommendations to the government on 30 June.
The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment said changes to the Building Act in 2004 introduced mandatory energy rating requirements for public, commercial, industrial and large multi-unit residential buildings.
Manager building for climate change Suzannah Toulmin said this change reflected the government's long-term plan to reduce buildings' emissions and enhance their climate resilience.
"While the requirements are currently intended to apply to large buildings, they could be expanded; in in the Emissions Reduction Plan," she said.
"Initially, they could apply to government, commercial and large residential buildings and potentially expand to other residential buildings in future.
"We need to explore how incentives, support or regulatory requirements could reduce existing buildings' emissions, while making buildings warmer and drier."
Toulmin said there was also scope to expand the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme.
"More than 110,000 retrofits have been done since the programme launched in 2018, making homes warmer, drier and healthier. In the Budget last month, we announced an expansion to the programme worth $402.6m over four years."
That would amount to 26,500 insulation and heating retrofits per year, for the next four years, she said.
Toulmin said Healthy Homes Standards for residential tennancies became law in 2019 and were being phased in for all tenancy types by July 2025. Landlords that did not meet their obligations were in breach of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
"The Tenancy Compliance and Investigations team undertake both proactive and reactive work to ensure that landlords comply with the Healthy Homes Standards, and landlords may be liable for exemplary damages of up to $7200."