Parmar Parmjeet: Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParmar Parmjeet: Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 18 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2416. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill in the name of Phil Twyford. We do not support this bill. This bill is to amend two Acts. It amends the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2000 to require the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority to set standards for heating and insulation in residential rental properties. It also amends the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 to require all landlords to then meet those standards that will be set by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.We believe that our first duty is to ensure that our own houses—that means our State houses—are in order which means our first step is to make sure that these houses are insulated and that is what we are doing. We are insulating every State house that can be insulated. The Government is taking a practical approach to this issue and for that we are developing a practical minimum quality standard. This standard will be applied to all State houses. This minimum quality standard has been already trialled on 500 Housing New Zealand houses. The National Government is committed to providing drier healthier and warmer homes. That is why we are focusing on getting State houses insulated first.About this member’s bill—there are a few issues in this bill that are not clear. The first and most important one is that it does not say when it would come into effect. It just says that it will be illegal to enter into a tenancy agreement from 7 days after the regulation takes effect for homes that do not meet the imposed standard. This will actually create a big commotion in the residential rental market because people will not get time to make sure that they have got their properties inspected and that the properties are compliant with the standards that will be set. So as a result landlords will be pulling out their properties from the market because they do not want to face those legal actions that are prescribed in this bill. If you look at the number of tenancy agreements that are entered into each day that number is around 1400. That tells us the magnitude of the problem that this bill could create.Secondly insulation does not mean better quality. The National Government is focusing on the overall quality of houses and that is why we are working on minimum quality standards. Minimum quality standards cover more than just insulation.The third issue is about standards. It is not very clear about the standards that will be set for these rental properties because if the standards are set low then those standards will not meet the purpose of this bill because those houses will not be drier and warmer. But if the standards are set high then it will have some indirect consequences. These consequences can be that some houses are such that they will not be able to meet those standards and will be out of the market. That will push the rent up. In the private sector if there are more rules more regulations and more restrictions that is going to push rents up.Another issue with these standards is that this bill puts the whole responsibility of meeting these standards on the landlord. This is not practically possible because in maintaining indoor temperature and ventilation there should be some kind of arrangement with the person who is living in the house as well and because some houses are designed such that there will be restrictions as per the design as to what can be modified.The final issue that I would like to talk about is that as per this bill it appears that landlords with new tenancies would not be given any period of notice to upgrade their property. This lack of notice is not workable or practical. With the way this bill is currently drafted it looks like this bill is going to create more social problems and more health problems and this will be a big risk to housing supply.Due to these reasons that I have listed I do not see any value in this bill. Instead I see numerous complications in the housing market due to this bill. The National Government is committed to helping families live in drier warmer healthier and affordable homes and providing drier warmer healthier and affordable homes is a much wider issue than what is covered in this bill. That is why I do not support this bill. Thank you.