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Insulation project sees 100,000 homes insulated

John Key

Wednesday 11 May 2011, 2:28PM

By John Key

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Prime Minister John Key today cut the ribbon to the 100,000th house to have benefited from the Government’s home insulation and heating programme, Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart.

The Prime Minister, Acting Energy and Resources Minister Hekia Parata, Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei and Green Party Energy spokesperson, Kennedy Graham all attended the event at the house of Tumoe and Vai Faaifo in Avalon, Lower Hutt.

Mr Key hailed the milestone figure as a significant achievement from a programme that is seeing a record number of houses completed each year, and he also recognised the contribution of the Green Party.

The programme forms a key part of the Memorandum of Understanding between National and the Green Party.

“100,000 homes are now warmer, drier and healthier. That’s roughly 300,000 people across the country who will be enjoying better living conditions as a direct result of the improvements made,” Mr Key says.

“Warmer, drier homes mean energy savings, lower power bills, and healthier communities. The programme also stimulates the economy and creates jobs.

‘Many providers registered under the scheme have hired new staff to cope with the demand, while insulation manufacturers have increased production, creating more employment,” Mr Key says.

EECA estimates around 2,000 people will be directly employed as a result of this programme over its four-year duration.

The Government has allocated $347 million to retrofit at least 188,500 homes over four years from July 2009, with insulation and clean, efficient heaters such as high-efficiency heat pumps and efficient gas heaters.

The Faaifo family have had ceiling and under floor insulation installed, as well as a moisture barrier, and draught stopping.

The installation was completed by the Sustainability Trust, a Wellington company that has employed 10 new staff to deal with increased demand since the scheme’s launch in July 2009.

Related Documents

Background information on Warm Up NZ: Heat Smart (pdf 21.29 KB)