Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (OCHT) and Christchurch City Council will restart work on the Warm & Dry Initiative as soon as possible once the country moves to Alert Level 3 next week.
The programme aims to install heat pumps in 909 priority homes managed by The Trust by 1 June.
The Warm & Dry Initiative was placed on hold on 25 March, following advice from CDHB Public Health that installations would have to stop to ensure tenant and contractor safety. At that point 340 heat pumps had been installed in homes, and the Trust committed to restart the installation programme as quickly as possible once national pandemic Alert Levels allowed.
“The Trust is pleased we can restart the Warm & Dry Initiative which we paused on 25 March. Our focus is to make up time and warm up the 909 priority homes for our tenants by installing heat pumps as safely as we can. During the last four weeks we have developed safe working guidelines, had these reviewed by CDHB and we are now working with our installation contractors to ensure that installation occurs as safely as possible. The guidelines will keep our tenants and contractors safe and ensure physical distancing,” said Cate Kearney, CEO of OCHT.
As long as the supply chain of heat pumps is available, the Trust is confident that the goal of 909 installations is achievable before winter. However, this is also dependant on the country remaining in Alert Level 3 or lower. All tenants have been sent letters informing them of the updated programme.
The planned ventilation programme will be deferred to enable the Trust to complete work on heat pump installations which are a priority.
Media Release
22 April 2020