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"Our part of the deal will see a projected 1560 homes upgraded in the area covered by Housing NZ's Hamilton Housing Unit, with most of the spending occurring over the next two years," said Martin Gallagher.

"These households can expect to need about 20 per cent less energy to heat their newly insulated homes – that's money in the pocket of struggling local people.

Across the wider Housing New Zealand 'Waikato-Coromandel-King Country' region, 585 state houses have already been insulated.

"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.

"Over the longer term, we also hope Energy Efficiency Retrofits will help improve the physical as well as financial health of tenants, because living in a warm, dry house means people are more likely to stay well.

"What's more, 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.

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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