Housing WOF to be tested in five NZ cities
A nationwide project aimed at making rental housing safer to live in, especially for children and the elderly, will kick off next month with ‘warrant of fitness’ field tests in five New Zealand cities.
Home assessment experts will test 25 rental properties each in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin against 28 measures. These will include criteria such as warmth (or ability to effectively heat), dryness, mould and dampness, injury risk, sanitation, basic state-of-repair and living needs.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown says it is widely known that much of New Zealand’s older housing stock is cold and damp and falls below the building standards of many other OECD countries.
“We are working with the government, not-for-profit and private sectors to tackle Auckland’s housing affordability and availability challenges, so it is only fitting we take a joint approach to improving housing quality, especially for the more vulnerable members of our community,” says Len Brown. “The dampness of many of our older homes is well documented as contributing to respiratory and allergic disorders such as asthma and rheumatic fever.”
The field tests will be an important step towards standardising methodologies and checklists between local government bodies to ensure the credibility of the WOF scheme. They’ll run throughout January and February 2014, with the results due to be published in March.
The rental housing WOF field test involves the Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin councils, the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), New Zealand Green Building Council and the University of Otago (Wellington).
The assessment tool was developed by the NZ Green Building Council and University of Otago (Wellington) with feedback and input from the five councils, ACC and other housing experts.
ACC’s Programme Manager for Home Safety, Megan Nagel, says: “ACC is supporting the warrant of fitness trial as part of our focus on reducing injuries in and around the home.
“Environmental factors such as poor lighting and maintenance, slippery surfaces and steps and stairs contribute to many home injuries. By helping to address factors such as these, a housing warrant of fitness will potentially support efforts to bring injury rates down.”
Leigh Featherstone, Homestar Director at the New Zealand Green Building Council, says the support of ACC and the cities involved shows a strong joint commitment to improving local housing and health.
“We hope that by the end of this project there’ll be a working tool to rate rental standards nationally. This will make sure rental housing isn’t endangering the health of the families living in it. The long-term payoff will be better health, particularly of our kids and elderly.”
A nationwide project aimed at making rental housing safer to live in, especially for children and the elderly, will kick off next month with ‘warrant of fitness’ field tests in five New Zealand cities.
Home assessment experts will test 25 rental properties each in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington,...
A nationwide project aimed at making rental housing safer to live in, especially for children and the elderly, will kick off next month with ‘warrant of fitness’ field tests in five New Zealand cities.
Home assessment experts will test 25 rental properties each in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin against 28 measures. These will include criteria such as warmth (or ability to effectively heat), dryness, mould and dampness, injury risk, sanitation, basic state-of-repair and living needs.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown says it is widely known that much of New Zealand’s older housing stock is cold and damp and falls below the building standards of many other OECD countries.
“We are working with the government, not-for-profit and private sectors to tackle Auckland’s housing affordability and availability challenges, so it is only fitting we take a joint approach to improving housing quality, especially for the more vulnerable members of our community,” says Len Brown. “The dampness of many of our older homes is well documented as contributing to respiratory and allergic disorders such as asthma and rheumatic fever.”
The field tests will be an important step towards standardising methodologies and checklists between local government bodies to ensure the credibility of the WOF scheme. They’ll run throughout January and February 2014, with the results due to be published in March.
The rental housing WOF field test involves the Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin councils, the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), New Zealand Green Building Council and the University of Otago (Wellington).
The assessment tool was developed by the NZ Green Building Council and University of Otago (Wellington) with feedback and input from the five councils, ACC and other housing experts.
ACC’s Programme Manager for Home Safety, Megan Nagel, says: “ACC is supporting the warrant of fitness trial as part of our focus on reducing injuries in and around the home.
“Environmental factors such as poor lighting and maintenance, slippery surfaces and steps and stairs contribute to many home injuries. By helping to address factors such as these, a housing warrant of fitness will potentially support efforts to bring injury rates down.”
Leigh Featherstone, Homestar Director at the New Zealand Green Building Council, says the support of ACC and the cities involved shows a strong joint commitment to improving local housing and health.
“We hope that by the end of this project there’ll be a working tool to rate rental standards nationally. This will make sure rental housing isn’t endangering the health of the families living in it. The long-term payoff will be better health, particularly of our kids and elderly.”
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