Government and Council funded home improvement schemes have helped deliver thousands of healthier homes over the years and, alongside the recent development of healthy home loan top-ups from banks, a much needed part of the funding solution if we are to achieve net zero emission homes.
However, council rates schemes have come to a screeching halt over the last year after being caught up in the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) legislation designed to deter loan sharks
Voluntary Targeted Rates schemes (VTR) are consumer credit contracts offered by councils to help ratepayers pay to retrofit their homes. They can be used to help homeowners pay for vital improvements like insulation, draught-proofing, better ventilation and clean heat sources alongside their council rates. This makes paying for these measures more accessible and ties the cost to the property regardless of changes in ownership.
We know that warmer, drier homes have significant positive long-term impacts, reducing burdens on the health care system and improving people’s general well-being. Following more than a year of the NZGBC, councils and others, making the case for an exemption, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Dr Duncan Webb this month announced the CCFA would be amended.
“We will be extending an exemption for voluntary targeted rate scheme loans (these low-cost loans are usually for sustainable home improvements like insulation) administered by local and regional councils. This will carve them out from the CCCFA and avoid unnecessary compliance costs. I expect regulations to give effect to this exemption to be made by the end of the year,” Dr Webb said.
Making VTRs exempt from the CCCFA makes it easier for councils to set up programmes to insulate and improve the health of Kiwi homes, which will lower carbon emissions, energy bills, and help families live comfortably. These are welcome changes- anything that supports ratepayers and families to make important home upgrades is a huge win.