A study on the Greens' home-insulation plan was released yesterday, and it looks like it has been a roaring success:
A series of studies commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Development said the $347 million Warm Up New Zealand programme, which subsidised the cost of insulation and heating homes, had generated significant health benefits since its introduction in 2009.The estimated return is four times the money invested. So naturally, the government is killing off the scheme after 2014 "to save money". Meanwhile, they continue to piss billions away on flagship roads whose costs outweigh their benefits...University of Otago researchers found that households which had installed insulation had cut their hospital and prescription costs.
In research published yesterday, it was also estimated that the scheme had prevented 18 deaths among people 65 or older who had previously been hospitalised with respiratory illness.
The combined benefits of reduced mortality and illness, and increased energy efficiency, was measured at $1.58 billion over nearly four years. More than 99 per cent of the economic benefits came from reduced health costs.
This is what National calls "responsible economic management". And it isn't.
