Have Labour not heard of heaters?

Stuff reports:

Emma-Lita Bourne’s family had been given a heater but could not afford to put it on. 

But Labour leader Andrew Little said requiring rental homes to be insulated was not enough.

“The problem is, you can have insulation, but if you’re not heating the house in the middle of winter, then all the insulation is doing is keeping the cold air in it,” Little said on TVNZ’s Breakfast show. 

“So there does need to be a means of heating – whether it’s a heat pump, whether it’s an energy efficient source of heating, a fireplace or whatever, there has to be a means of heating the home.”

That would be a compulsory requirement for rental accommodation under Labour, Little said.  

Umm, a heater is a means of heating. I doubt there is any property in NZ that does not have a source of heating.

The issue is that electricity is not free, but that is a different issue to requiring a source of heating. Heat pumps cost money also.

Having Government dictate what the form of heating must be for every property is nuts. Sometimes a wall heater is the cheapest form of heating because you don’t want the whole house heated.

Also not every rental property is for low income families. Some top end rentals go to US executives. Is Labour saying that it will be illegal to rent a penthouse apartment out to a person earning $500,000 a year, if it has wall heaters instead of a heat pump?