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Lynne Pillay, MP for Waitakere, says West Auckland can expect warmer, drier state housing soon with Housing New Zealand doubling the speed of their home insulation programme.

This is all part of the Energy Efficiency Retrofit campaign in a $53.4 million nationwide Budget 2008 initiative developed with the Green Party.

"Our part of the deal will see a projected 1082 homes upgraded in the area covered by Housing NZ's Henderson, New Lynn, and Westgate-Waitakere Housing Units, with most of the spending occurring over the next two years," says Lynne Pillay.

"From conversations I have had with Housing New Zealand tenants I know that having an insulated home will make a world of difference – both to their health and their pocket. They can expect to need about 20 per cent less energy to heat their newly insulated homes.

"Decent insulation is a good first step in making older homes warmer and healthier places to live. The government's warm air programme will also see heaters installed where appropriate. Living in a warm and dry house means people are more likely to stay well.

"We want to set a good example for all landlords to do the right thing by their tenants and insulate floors and ceilings, wrap hot water cylinder and lag pipes," says Lynne Pillay.

Across the wider Housing New Zealand 'West and North Auckland' region, 856 state houses have already been insulated.

The fast-tracking will see all 21,000 remaining state houses nationwide insulated within five years. Housing New Zealand owns and maintains about 68,600 properties. Many were built before 1978, before insulation was mandatory, and have poor or no insulation and/or use inefficient heating, such as open fires.

Over half of people in state homes are under the age of 20, and 10 per cent are over the age of 60.

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