May 04, 2016
Healthy homes bill critical for renters
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says Andrew Little’s Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill to be debated in parliament tonight is a chance to restart the campaign to insulate New Zealand homes.
A comprehensive home insulation scheme that was part of a previous agreement between the Greens and National has been canned with more than 600,000 homes still uninsulated.
Ms Turei says many of those are rentals, and the bill will stop landlords from selling what is often a substandard product.
"Rental homes have to meet a decent safety standand. Decent insulation heating and ventilation but also other things, like safetly rails on stairs and strips on glass doors to stop children from crashing through them. More than a hundred kids crash through glas doors and get injured. This is not a red tape issue this is not a nice to have' it is about actually saving lives and preventing kids from getting sick," she says.
Metiria Turei says Maori groups and iwi embraced the insultaiton scheme, and they could play an important role in ensuring the houses that need to be fixed are identified quickly.
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