Weird that Maori lived in Maraes and entire generations raised in non insulated villas and state house for generations, and they all came out their non insulated, non mechanically ventilated houses healthy – not sure they were filled with mould like apparently they are now, possibly because people lived differently and knew how to open the windows and clean a bit better and do repairs?

Also I’m not sure you are right about people in and overcrowded room refusing to open the window a crack in winter is a good advice… pretty sure I saw some documentary from the energy people saying you should keep it open a little or at least air it especially if it is full of people as they are creating moisture at greater levels in a small space. It sounds counter productive but it isn’t. This isn’t my advice but from the energy people.

Having a heat pump which I think is one of the best options for heating if you have reliable power, if they can afford to run it will help but also there have been deaths from heat pumps as they can over heat babies who are less able to regulate their body temperature.

This is not to say that housing NZ does not have a responsibility to repair the houses properly as it seems clear that they are have not been keeping them up to scratch and that may be because the National government took such large dividends (but also because some tenants do have problems and destroy the houses). It’s not one group is worse that the other, they need to be in a symbiotic relationship not this adversarial one.

I think insulation is great, but it is also a cultural choice as well, and the idea that somehow old houses and uninsulated Marae’s are the source of all woes in NZ by the woke lefties is laughable as the politicians have become robots on the subject.

In my view Labour only scraped through because the stosh on Jacinda about pregnancy took away the robotic discourse from Labour and Greens about ‘warm dry homes’, of which most people have lived happily in the opposite and have a camping like culture so don’t agree, for long enough for people to tick the labour box.

Yes, insulation is good, but unfortunately this debate has been hijacked by the construction industry and now healthy houses being used to further Rogernomics by stealth not stop it.

Healthy houses, is now being used as a means to sell off 2/3 of state house land under Labour for example while ignoring other factors like with expanded low wage population of NZ we are going to need that land very soon or else where will people live?

The National government created the housing crisis through immigration and then hid it, through blaming mum’s and dad landlords and the tenants themselves with woke lefty meets far righty committees that set the fake Meth level not using independent scientists.

I’m not blaming the tenants for houses that are in a despicable state of disrepair, but there is also many free things tenants can do that will stop mould and as mentioned it was never a problem, in previous generations with the same houses!

There is a middle ground on this issue! If the woke lefties will consider other scenarios including they are been hood winked (just like the Meth levels) on other issue effecting poverty in NZ and look at them together.

Kiwibuild will do nothing to solve the housing crisis, (actually increase it as houses are now more expensive as they are ‘upgraded’) while incomes are going backwards in real terms.

Hopefully the robotic ‘warm dry houses’ brigade will stop before they make 40% of low income people homeless and the state being hood winked by thinking that a $500k one bedroom apartment 45 minutes by public transport to the CBD in Auckland is somehow an affordable house.

Seriously we could be building mansions at that price if you already have the land like the state does. Look at this incredible house built for $344K and can be transported to a site and built within a few months.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-1859514224.htm?rsqid=5044875d4d5042a0999727b85de9fec2

P>S> It has double glazed and insulated everything for that price!

So I’m not sure why the government don’t get firms like that to build houses and then place them on the state house sites.

Unitary plan ended up increasing the price of land around Auckland (and worked according to plan while being championed by the left and thicko economists as doing the opposite) because all the rich lobbyists wanted that and now the state is virtually giving away/swapping 2/4 land to replace a state house that is there already and could have been renovated cheaply or relocatable houses moved on which would still be cheaper and provide more housing quicker than what they have.

Who the fcuk cares about national voters, male or female? If you’re so concerned for them Peter, give them your money. Or piss off

Well said Janio. Well. Said.

Hnz tenants don’t have money to burn by opening windows to freeze their arses off just so you can feel morally smug and fucking superior. If hnz installed proper ventilation, heating, and insulation, this wouldn’t be an issue. Butbthats too hard for you to accept, eh? Easier to blame the poor for everything rather than the failings of the state and the stripping of cash reserves from hnz by previous govts, eh?

Until you walk in their shoes, STFU because you know absolutely nothing except how to pontificate. Thats the trouble with you Righties, pig ignorant of life’s realities.

Thanks frank……and I’m sure there’s a few women out there that might have something to say about that.

“We live year round with bedroom windows open and only heat the living/kitchen/dining area for a couple of hours a day for the 3 winter months.”

So why don’t you open all your windows in winter, Andrew?!

Maybe because it’s damned cold?

You expect poor families to freeze their arses off so you can feel smug in your warm, heated home (with a window open in one room – bully for you!) and to hell with the health consequences for those people?

You typify the Right, Andrew. Your lack of understanding and empathy, and expectation that everyone shares your standard of living, shows how out of touch you are.

Savenz;

“Actually you are supposed to open windows every day to air your house unless you have a heat pump or similar which takes fresh air and heats it. Even then, opening windows to ventilate is a good idea. “

In summer – yes.

In winter – no.

Remember, Savenz, that there are families living in just one room to save of heating.

These are low income families/working poor that I hardly need to remind you are the product of 30+ years of failed neo-liberalism.

Blaming HNZ tenants for housing that has little safe ventilation; poor heating; and limited insulation is like right-wingers blaming poor people for having children because they can’t afford decent food.

It’s the old technique of blaming the poor for what they have to put up with – thereby absolving the Right from the reality that neo-liberalism has failed in it’s “trickle down”.

The inference is that if the poor are still poor; are still living in miserable circumstances; still can’t afford good food, shoes for children, healthcare, etc, then it must be down to failings of moral charachter rather than the neo-liberal system itself.

In this case, mouldy homes “must be the fault of not opening windows” rather than poor ventilation and heating that is so expensive that they either go without, or try pitifully to conserve what little they have.

If in doubt, consider why affluent, or middle class families don’t seem to have the same problems of mould. (It can’t be that mould spores are class-selective.)

The difference is standards of housing and income inequality.