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BETWEEN 2015 AND 2017 a dedicated team of footsloggers from the club, supported by HCC and the Health Board, visited about 3000 low income rented tenancies, both private and HCNZ, in the Hutt, to establish which qualified for the Government programme of free or subsidised home insulation.
About a third of the houses (half private and half HCNZ tenancies) did qualify.
We then contacted the landlords themselves to inform them that these houses needed to be insulated and that they qualified for a subsidy and that if they didn’t do the work, they could be liable for a substantial fine.
Two positive developments since are that, firstly, the Associate Minister of Housing Kris Faafoi, has advised that about 300 of their tenancies in the Hutt City have been retrofitted or are being done. And the landlords who haven’t provided insulation are now going through the courts.
The other part of this initiative, the Healthy In the Hutt expo in the Walter Nash Stadium, is now in its fourth year, supported strongly by 20-odd health providers who participate, and also by the public.