Twyford Phil: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 24 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11137. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): The Minister for Building and Housing the Hon Dr Nick Smith in his last contribution I think if I am correct urged the Committee to stop what he called nit-picking. I was kind of reflecting on this—that the Minister thinks that the criticisms that the Opposition have of his bill are nit-picking. We have a lot of fun on this side of the House at the expense of Dr Smith. It is mostly because there is such a big gulf between the scale of the housing crisis and this endless procession of half measures that he brings to the House and to the public. That is why we have so much fun at his expense.Nevertheless the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill deserves to be treated with some gravity because it is something. It is something. After prevaricating for several years the Minister has brought a bill to the House that actually does contain some good stuff. It does actually set some standards for insulation and smoke alarms. It has comprehensive provisions that put in place the machinery of government that will be necessary in the future to administer and enforce some proper and decent standards about the quality of housing. That is something and that is why we are voting for this bill.But the sad thing about it is that it falls so far short of what the Minister could be doing. He knows that credible New Zealand research and evidence shows that $1 invested in retro-fitting houses through insulation and modern affordable heating saves $5 to $6 in future public health expenditure. That is the cost-benefit analysis and that is why we cannot understand on this side of the Chamber why the Minister is legislating in this bill redundant insulation standards that go back to 1978. That is the shame of it. When this bill passes—as it will because National has the numbers in the House—hundreds of thousands of rental properties in New Zealand that are currently insulated to the 1978 standard will not have to be upgraded to the current 2008 standard. That is the shame of this bill and that is the poverty of ambition that underlies so much of this Minister’s housing policy.The reason for the deficiencies the rationale for the deficiencies at the heart of this bill is that it would be too much of a burden on landlords. The Minister is clearly afraid that requiring for example a $3000 heat pump will be such a burden on landlords that they will have to put the rent up. My colleague Stuart Nash has put paid to that assertion. We know everybody knows the Minister knows that rents are set by supply and demand. Just because a landlord has to replace the roof because it is leaking and spends $10000 on replacing it the landlord cannot put up the rent to recover that cost from the hapless tenant.If you consider the case of heat pumps a heat pump might cost let us say at most $3500. A modern heat pump would have a lifetime of 15 years. Over that time across the country an average rental property with an average weekly rent of $440 would generate gross revenue of $340000. If it is an Auckland property with an average rent of $520 a week the gross revenue over the 15-year period the lifetime of that heat pump would be $400000. To suggest that requiring a landlord to invest $3500 in a heat pump is going to force them to put up the rent and throw the tenants out on the street which is the argument that the Minister has repeatedly used is a complete nonsense. It will not happen. It is simply a cover for this Minister’s refusal to do the right thing.By taking this position the Minister is standing up for slum landlords. As an earlier speaker said there are good mum and dad landlords and professional landlords all over the country who understand the importance of making sure that their rental property is not a threat to the life and health of their tenants.