Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins has railed against changes made to housing policy in this year's Budget, including cuts to Warmer Kiwi Homes and public housing maintenance.
Speaking to reporters after visiting the Sustainability Trust, which offers the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme in the Wellington region, Hipkins called the Budget a "catastrophe for New Zealand as a whole".
He pointed to cuts made to $127.5m over four years in cuts made to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, which administers the programme, through reversals of various new parts of the programme including funding for hot water heating, low-cost energy efficiencies, an LED lighting scheme, and an outreach approach for hard-to-access homes.
He said things like making sure Kiwis' power bills were lower was something that could make a significant difference to New Zealanders struggling with the cost of living, and showed the government's priorities were wrong.
"By narrowing down what can be paid for by the Warmer Kiwi Homes Programme ... means that those homes just won't get insulated," he said.
"The easy homes to insulate have largely been reached, so it's the more complex ones that are not going to be reached now ... It'll be low-income families that'll miss out as a result of the cuts that have been made."
The programme was put in place in 2018 by the former Labour government and covers up to 90 percent of the costs to purchase and install insulation and an efficient heater for homeowners.
About $91m a year remains for the programme to continue to deliver its primary aims.
In a separate statement, Hipkins and Labour's housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty also targeted a reduced spend on public housing maintenance - suggesting it could lead to the sale of public houses in the future.
"The government has cut $435 million from the Kāinga Ora house build programme and over $1 billion from the maintenance fund," McAnulty said.
"The National Party did this last time. Public houses got so run down that a big investment was needed to do them up, and instead of fronting up what was needed they sold the houses off instead ... The reduction in investment through Budget 2024 feels like history repeating itself. Selling off assets was bad policy then and is bad policy now."
RNZ
