Heating delays unacceptable for Cantabrians

Thousands of Canterbury people will face cold, miserable winter months ahead because of unacceptable delays to installing heating systems in their damaged homes, says Labour’s Earthquake Recovery spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.

Clayton Cosgrove said MPs were told last night at the weekly cross-party briefing held by Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee that only about 40 per cent of the promised 4500 priority heating units will be installed by the middle of this month.

“There has been a massive miscalculation,” Clayton Cosgrove said. “This is unacceptable because the Government was warned after the September quake last year that home heating would be an absolute health priority for families this winter.

“The Government had plenty of advance notice, and it can’t blame the February quake for not getting its act together,” Clayton Cosgrove said.

“When Fletcher’s announced in mid-April it would have 4500 units installed by mid-May it seems to have forgotten that this is the time of year when these tradespeople are flat tack anyway, and can’t drop everything to suit the Government’s timetable.

“The Government’s chimney replacement scheme was launched 10 days after the September quake, but not one heater had been installed by last Christmas,” Clayton Cosgrove said. “People living in cold, leaky homes will be the ones who suffer as a consequence.

“The tragedy is that the figure of 4500 represents only a fraction of the problem anyway. The September quake brought down 20,000 chimneys. Another 10,000 fell in February.

“The initial list of priority houses will go up and up, and there will be many Cantabrians who will go right through winter without satisfactory heating.

“This places another unnecessary stress on people who are already more than stressed enough,” Clayton Cosgrove said