Woods Megan; Dean JacquiRESIDENTIAL TENANCIES (HEALTHY HOMES STANDARDS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): I present a legislative statement on the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Amendment Bill. I move That the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Amendment Bill be now read a first time.New Zealand and the world have faced many challenges over the last few years. COVID-19 as well as being a health emergency has had many issues and impacts on the construction sector. The global supply chain issues have meant it's been difficult to obtain goods from overseas and it has caused delays in construction. Lockdowns and isolation measures have also changed spending habits and more money being spent on people's homes contributing to shortages of tradespeople in the construction sector.As a result this bill proposes an extension to the compliance timetable for both private and public landlords to meet the healthy homes standards. The healthy homes standards are minimum standards for heating insulation ventilation draught stopping moisture and grease and drainage in our rental properties. However some landlords have found it difficult to meet the standards in the current compliance time frames due to factors beyond their control. The original compliance time frames were set in 2019 well before anyone could have imagined what was around the corner and the disruptions that would occur on a global and on a local scale. The extension gives private and public landlords the opportunity to comply without being at risk of breaching their obligations and breaking the law. This is a pragmatic and sensible response to a set of circumstances that were beyond the control of many of the people.Previously all Kāinga Ora and community housing provider (CHP) houses were required to have all the properties complying with the healthy homes standards by July 2023. Private landlords had an additional year on this until 1 July 2024. The changes that we're introducing today mean that Kāinga Ora and CHPs will now need to comply by July 2024 and private landlords will keep that additional year that was in the original timetable and now have a compliance date of July 2025.Kāinga Ora community housing providers and private landlords are in similar boats. If we have a look at what Kāinga Ora has achieved to date in terms of the insulation and upgrade to the healthy homes standards of its housing stock 84 percent of Kāinga Ora tenanted housing stock is meeting the standards or is being upgraded right now—those upgrades are already under way. We have scaled up the work that is being done and we are now completing 600 homes a week in terms of the upgrade.I think if we have a look at what the private sector has managed to achieve if we look at the survey data the most recent survey data—noting that we have another survey in the field that closes this month and that data will be reported back in January to Government—the best estimate is that we have around 84 percent of private landlords who have met their compliance targets. This suggests to me that 84-85 percent is probably about the capacity of the market at the moment.If we have a look at the CHP sector some of our community housing providers are really struggling. There are CHPs who are less than 50 percent compliant and haven't been able to access the supply chain that Kāinga Ora has. This is a necessary and pragmatic response that we need to do.We've heard and we've listened to those both in the community housing sector to private landlords and to Kāinga Ora. One community housing provider has said COVID-19 has had direct and significant impact on the delivery of our healthy homes standard programme which could not have been anticipated when the regulations were first put into place." I don't think any of us can argue with that. Regulations and time lines that were instituted in 2019 simply did not know what was coming. However as a Government we consider this incredibly important work—the fact that we do have homes that are healthy for people to live in homes that will not make people sick homes that are of a standard that we expect New Zealanders to have a right to live in. That is why as a Government we made it a priority. I think it is a shame that it had to wait until 2017 and a change of Government until this kind of work got under way but it was one of our priorities when we came into Government and despite these extensions this remains a priority.I've made it clear to Kāinga Ora that my expectations are not that this extension of the time frame should mean that they take the foot off the pedal at all that 600 homes a week being completed to the standards is a good number and probably at about capacity and I want to see that. In reality I think Kāinga Ora will probably reach somewhere close to 95 percent of compliance by 1 July 2023 the date that it had. It is making up lost time for the constraints and it is fitting it into its wider build programme which itself has scaled up considerably in the last 12 months to a point where we are the Government that is producing the most public houses of any Government since the 1970s.This is a State house build of a generation. I think it is pause to reflect that of the 10000 new places that we've added while we've been in Government you add that to the 60000 - odd that were there when we came in—you can see the scale of what this Government has done to the housing stock. But it's not only quantity; it's also the quality of the existing stock that remains important to us.So this bill that we have being introduced tonight amends the Residential Tenancies Act of 1986 as well as the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Regulations of 2019. The final compliance date is in the Act while the regulations set out the time frames for each type of tenancy. We are debating this bill under urgency so that all landlords can have certainty and clarity on their new time frames as soon as possible. One of the things I heard very clearly particularly from private landlords was they wanted to have this legislative change made so that they were crystal clear on what their new time frames were. The bill has a commencement date of 26 November 2022 which is estimated to be the day after the date of Royal assent. We want to introduce these changes as soon as possible to ensure that landlords can use the extension if they need it. So for any private tenancy that started or renewed on or after 28 August 2022 the landlord will now have 120 days to comply with the healthy homes standards.The bill also makes consequential amendments to the Residential Tenancies (Smoke Alarms and Insulation) Regulations of 2016 and these regulations set out the insulation requirements that do not apply once the tenancy is required to meet the insulation standard in the healthy homes standards. Once all tenancies are required to meet the healthy homes standards the insulation requirements in these regulations will be revoked. The consequential amendments line up the dates with the new time frames that are contained in the bill.I think it's important to note that these extensions do not apply to landlords who have simply missed their obligations under the Act as it is currently stood so that if a tenancy has changed in that time frame and a landlord has failed to comply then they will not have the benefit of this extension.The Government is responding to an extraordinary and unprecedented set of disruptions brought about by a global pandemic over the past two years. It has been felt by public landlords and it has been felt by private landlords. This extension gives landlords the opportunity to comply without being at risk of breaching their obligations due to issues outside of their control. It improves regulatory certainty. This amendment shows the Government is willing to be flexible and pragmatic and I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to."