KEY POINTS:
Waitakere City Council is looking at spending $63.5 million over a decade to bring 20,000 houses up to modern comfort and energy standards.
It would be a major commitment and would go beyond anything other councils have undertaken, councillors heard when they decided to put the idea in the draft 10-year budget.
"Many of our people live in substandard homes that are too expensive to keep warm and dry and which make them lose time at school and work through preventable illness," said Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse.
"This is a drain on all taxpayers and a small investment could save us money."
The scheme assumes the retrofits will cost an average of $8000 a house - paid for by loans to the homeowners and landlords.
The interest payments would cost $63.5 million over 20 years at 8 per cent interest, said council sustainability initiatives adviser Catherine Sheehan.
This would be paid by the council and any partners it could get.
These could be the Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts, the ASB Community Trust, Waitemata District Health Board and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.
Ms Sheehan said that by 2020, the capital cost would peak and begin to decline as the early loans began to be repaid in full.
However, in practice, the scheme would be likely to include a portion of fully subsidised retrofits for low-income households.
The cost would be spread among the various partners.
For loans, the council could be a lender through an agreement used in Christchurch where the borrower pays the loan on the city council rates bills, paying 10 per cent of the capital a year for 10 years while the council pays the loan interest. If the house is sold during the time, the vendor repays the loan in full to the council.
Retrofit work could include roof and underfloor insulation, dual-flush toilets, water tanks, water-saving showerheads, solar water-heating, insulating hotwater cylinders, energy-saving lightbulbs and worm farms.
Ms Sheehan said even homes built since insulation regulations came in were inadequately insulated and needed to be upgraded.
Last year, the council spent $80,000 in part-funding EcoWise West, a scheme that retrofitted 1275 homes in five years and is now wound up.
It also gives $200,000 a year to the Beacon Pathway HomeSmart Renovations and $80,000 to EcoMatters Environment Trust sustainable homes programme.
WARMING UP
* Waitakere City Council will look at retrofits to 20,000 houses over a decade to make them dry, warm and energy-efficient.
* Home owners will get interest-free loans for the work.
* Of the city's 66,000 houses, half were built before the 1978 insulation regulations.
* About 10,000 homes are in areas where people have health problems, low incomes and poor housing.
