Council Working on ‘Where To’ with Warm Your Whare

The ‘Warm your Whare’ home insulation programme has been able to arrange free home insulation for 35 homes around Ruapehu under the last funding round.

Led by Ruapehu District Council (RDC) the ‘Warm your Whare’ initiative combined government funding from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) Healthy Homes scheme with funding from the King Country Electric Power Trust, The Lines Company, Smart Energy Solutions (SES) and King Country Energy to offer free home insulation to qualifying households.

RDC Policy Analyst Samantha Arthur-Curtis said that it was frustrating that they could not do more at this time with 160 households registering their interest to be part of ‘Warm your Whare’ over the last 18 months.

“As with any initiative this type of funding is always limited which is unfortunate given that the evidence of beneficial outcomes on whanau health, well-being, lower hospital admissions, etc. from warm, dry homes is clear.”

“Currently registrations of interest are closed while we research what our options are for obtaining further funding,” she said.

“We are in the process of writing to everyone who registered under the last funding round to explain where we have got to and what their current options are.”

“In the meantime, our home insulation supplier Smart Energy Solutions (SES) are continuing to assess and quote the remaining houses that are on council's database.”

Ms. Arthur-Curtis said that ideally, government would establish some form of permanent funding support for home insulation; however, even if this did occur it would be very unlikely to cover 100% of the costs.

“Part of the research council is undertaking is looking at whether we could help fund home insulation and have people pay for it via their rates as well as setting up a permanent trust that could access funding sources not accessible to individuals.”

“Any proposal for council to support home insulation will be discussed with the community through the Long Term Plan (LTP) consultation process in March next year.”

“In the interim households with a Community Services Cards (CSC) should note that they meet EECA's criteria for receiving up to 50% off the cost of insulating their home.”

“Households that did not register with council that have a CSC and who want to take up the 50% subsidy opportunity should contact SES directly on 0800 888 766 or visit http://smartenergysolutions.co.nz/ to organise a free assessment.”

“If people need any further information they are welcome to call me at council on either 07 895 8188 or 06 385 8364.”
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