Home repairs hit halfway milestone
Hon Gerry Brownlee
Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery
Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission
27 June 2013 Media Statement
Home repairs hit halfway milestone
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says greater Christchurch’s 40,000th home has now been repaired – leaving EQC’s project managed home repair programme with around 40,000 homes to go.
“We established the managed home repair programme in October 2010 to coordinate the delivery of quality home repairs and support confidence in the region’s long term future,” Mr Brownlee says.
“This is being achieved, with Fletcher Construction winning a public tender to manage the programme, in doing so constraining cost inflation by setting a fair hourly rate for work while overseeing quality repairs.
“Around 1800 full home repairs are being completed each month – 60 a day – and with some 1300 contracting firms accredited, employing about 5000 tradesmen, the programme is in full swing.
“A major risk for Christchurch given the extent of residential damage was that confidence in the region’s housing stock would fall in the wake of earthquakes.
“Instead, we’ve instilled confidence, housing values have been maintained, and we’re working hard to address land and housing supply as Christchurch’s population grows.
“Confidence in the city is very high today, with recent immigration data showing Christchurch had a net population gain of 2600 last month, compared with a net loss of 2500 in May 2012 – that’s nearly 100 people a day.
“Departures from the city are lower than at any time over the last decade.
“This delivers its own set of challenges, but they’re better challenges than we’d have faced if we hadn’t put responsible parameters around the repair of EQC clients’ homes.
“Cost inflation for materials and building work would have run rampant, poor workmanship would have been routine, and confidence in the recovery would have suffered as a result,” Mr Brownlee says.
The Canterbury Home Repair Programme aims to complete repairs of homes with the most severe damage by the end of this year, as well as repairing the homes of EQC’s most vulnerable claimants. Overall, the aim is to have completed most repairs by the end of 2014.
EQC is currently writing to all customers in the Canterbury Home Repair Programme queue to let them know how their claim is progressing.
For more information on the programme visit www.eqc.govt.nz/canterbury-earthquakes/home-repair-process/chrp or www.eqr.co.nz
ENDS