12. Question No. 12—Housing (Public Housing)ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour) to the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)Question No. 12—Housing (Public Housing)12. ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour) to the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing): How is the Government making sure that New Zealanders who rent live in warm dry and secure housing?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)): This Government believes that the over 600000 households who live in rented homes should be living in places that are warm dry and secure. This is why we have introduced changes in the healthy homes guarantee and also our reforms to the Residential Tenancies Act. I have recently seen some unfortunate commentary that the new standards are burdensome and unnecessary but the Government disagrees. We do disagree because the Ministry of Health has said that 6000 children are admitted every year for housing-sensitive hospitalisations and these children have been found to be nearly four times more likely to be re-hospitalised and 10 times more likely to die in the following 10 years. Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki: Why is the Government limiting rent rises to once every 12 months? Hon KRIS FAAFOI: The Government is limiting rent increases to once every 12 months and is also banning the solicitation of rental bids by landlords. We're doing this because we think renters should be able to have some certainty over costs in a 12-month period. This is a balanced approach because we also recognise that landlords have to be able to manage their assets appropriately. Again we've seen some unfortunate commentary that this policy should go on some kind of regulatory bonfire. This is unfortunate because more and more New Zealanders are renting in retirement and we should give them a sense of security and predictability with their costs. These people are often on fixed incomes and the unpredictability of rent rises that others seem to be advocating for will only lead to their financial insecurity. Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki: Why is the Government allowing tenants to make minor fittings to their rental homes? Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We are making rental properties safer and more livable by letting tenants add minor fittings such as brackets to secure furniture against earthquake risks and to baby-proof properties and installing visual fire alarms for those who are hearing-impaired. I find any commentary that suggests the hearing-impaired would need to jump through hoops to install visual fire alarms quite troubling and the product of a dark nasty and insensitive place. Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki: Why did the Government introduce the healthy homes standards? Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We introduced these standards because we know that in New Zealand nearly 600000 households are renting and 43 percent of children live in rented accommodation and we know that our rental stock is of poorer quality than owner-occupied homes. We did this for tenants because we know they should be living in healthy homes. The standards go a long way toward making rental homes healthier for tenants and they do this by requiring all rental homes to have a heater that can heat the main living area to 18 degrees Celsius and making sure that all rental homes have proper insulation. Again we are disappointed to see recent commentary that suggested obligations to provide rental homes that keep people out of hospital were somehow onerous.