A CASE FOR ACCREDITED HOUSING STANDARDS

Announcement by Good Magazine - Issue 3 - 2nd of October 2008 - 11:16 AM

We need to look at our housing if we want to address our respiratory ills holistically.

 One very important recent development for people with asthma is the work being done to create and maintain much healthier home environments. We now have a solid body of evidence about the health benefits of a warmer, dryer home, thanks to the University of Otago. We also know that our housing stock is generally not easy to heat, nor energy efficient. Research is now in the pipeline that will provide us with better knowledge about how to build much more sustainable housing and to assist us to make good choices when renovating our homes.

One specific we lack, however, when we buy or rent a home is any information about whether or not it will be good for our health. It may look good but does it have any insulation in the ceiling or under the floor? If so, is it still in good condition and doing its job? We can get information about aspects of a house we are buying from
our local council but they can’t tell us if it is a healthy, energy-efficient home. If we are renting a home—and increasing numbers of people expect to do this rather than buy their own home—we have much less information about it.

When you rent, you don’t generally have the benefit of a building inspection. Does the property get any winter sun? Is there insulation in the roof or under the floor? Is it draughty? Is there an efficient form of heating in the house or flat? Is the kitchen and bathroom ventilated? Is the property prone to mould?
Arguably under the current system owners have an incentive to improve their property, which landlords may not (or improvements may be cosmetic). The uptake of government-subsidised insulation programmes by
landlords has been very low.

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation is advocating a new system that would provide a guide for purchasers and renters when they take on a new property. We believe it needs to be a mandatory part of the renting or purchasing process. This will give people solid information on whether or not the property is likely to be warm and easy to heat.

An existing measure that could be used to provide this information is the Home Energy Rating Scheme (HERS). This is an assessment of the energy efficiency performance of a home. It looks at the building itself and at the room-heating and hot water systems. A star rating system indicates the energy efficiency of the home.

If legislation required vendors and landlords to provide a HERS rating for purchasers and renters, this would provide them with clear information on the property from the outset. It would also increase understanding of what is needed to have a healthy and energy-efficient house, which is likely to speed up the improvement of our poor quality housing stock. We’d like to see the introduction of such a requirement. We have a lot of
enquiries from people wanting to know what they should do to improve the health of their children—information from a HERS rating would be a good starting point when buying or renting.