Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee has defended the government's home insulation program following an audit that found quality concerns with a third of the work done through the scheme.The scheme to help fund insulation of New Zealand homes was
Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee has defended the government’s home insulation program following an audit that found quality concerns with a third of the work done through the scheme.
The scheme to help fund insulation of New Zealand homes was introduced as stimulus to the construction industry to improve the energy efficiency of houses and provide occupants with warmer and healthier environments.
So far 57,908 homes of been retro-fitted through the program during its first year.
Of those jobs, 55% of them were occupied by low income people.
An audit found one third of homes insulations completed through the program had quality concerns.
Rimutaka MP Chris Hipkins asked the minister why the public should have confidence in the scheme given the quality issues.
“A quality concern may mean that there was rubbish left on the site. It may mean that there some instructions were not left with a heating appliance. It may mean that in some cases they could not get in to install insulation because the gap was too narrow—I should not talk about narrowing gaps this week,” Mr Bownlee said.
“The most recent incidence of safety issues, I understand, is less than 1 percent. Those, of course, were all rectified, because the installers were required to go back over all of their work when one of those instances was discovered…I think that 57,908 retrofits indicates a very high level of public confidence in the scheme.”
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