By Dave Goosselink
Green MP Gareth Hughes has been touring student flats in Dunedin, and wants to see new minimum standards introduced for rental properties.
He claims many of the country's rental houses are cold and damp, and they're making people sick.
Dunedin's student flats are notorious for being cold and damp, so they're high on the list for Mr Hughes.
"So come 2018, if you want to rent a house for profit you've got to prove it's up to scratch," he says. "It's got to be warm and it's got to be healthy."
While building standards for new houses have been improving, Mr Hughes says those rules don't apply to the 960,000 homes built before insulation standards came in.
"Many of those old, cold, damp houses are rental properties, and it's the tenants who are paying the heating costs, they're paying the health costs, and it's got big impacts on the economy - more sick days, lost productivity."
One north Dunedin flat has been known for years as 'The Fridge', a nickname the current tenants admit is pretty apt.
"It does get incredibly cold," says student George Dooley. "I mean, you're eating dinner in a sleeping bag and puffer jacket just about every night, and you can see your breath just about all day round.
"So yeah absolutely, fair enough name, The Fridge. Big and white and cold."
The students say it's not worth their while going for insulation subsidies themselves, but do like the idea of living in better insulated houses.
"Definitely yeah," says Angus Webb. "Flats are bloody cold. I've got mates up the road who have to put salt in their toilet to stop it freezing, so it does get really cold down here in the winter."
Mr Hughes is preparing to experience that first hand, and will spend tonight sleeping in one of Dunedin's chilly student flats.
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