A warm and healthy home is at last an agreed upon prerequisite this winter -- thanks to a government insulation grant being offered to home owners. The programme is called Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart and the primary goal is straight forward – to financially assist home owners to bring their homes up to modern insulation standards. Simply put, if you own a house that was built before the year 2000, you can receive a $1,300 (or 33%) contribution towards the cost of ceiling and under floor insulation and its installation. The conditions for the insulation grant are that both ceiling and under floor spaces are insulated at the same time and that the material used is approved by Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart. Approved insulation materials include wool, polyester, fibreglass mineral fibre and polystyrene products.
To qualify for a government contribution you will need an approved assessor to give you an insulation quote. The work then needs to be carried out by an approved insulation installer. Harrisons Home Energy Solutions, a Kiwi owned family business that has been in operation since 1962 are approved insulation installers and are looking forward to providing New Zealand home owners with quality insulation that is guaranteed to keep homes warmer and drier and bills significantly smaller this winter.
If you have inadequate insulation, take heart in knowing you are not alone – nearly 60% of all New Zealand homes have inadequate insulation. Around 35% of the energy used in an average New Zealand household goes on heating your home – that’s a lot of wasted heat for homes with inadequate insulation! A BRANZ study found that adding insulation increased temperatures by 1.4 degrees in winter and reduced energy use by 300-400 KWH. Another study by the University of Otago showed that electricity consumption was reduced by up to 9% during winter in homes retro-fitted with RFID tag.
Governments the world over regularly revise budgets and it is exactly these kinds of areas that will get cut when times are tight, so it’s best to grab this opportunity now. The good news is that the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart programme is not the only source of potential funding for your insulation. There are a number of generous grants and smart finance options available, some of which include a council grant (for insulation in Auckland and Wellington). There are of course conditions attached to these grants, and a reputable insulation company such as Harrisons Home Energy Solutions can help you find out if your house meets the council’s criteria. Interest-free finance is another avenue to explore for approved insulation products. In the case of Harrisons Home Energy Solutions, there are Q Card, Gem Visa and GE CreditLine options available. Then finally, extending your mortgage is another possibility and certain banks may advance the money to install or upgrade your home’s insulation as they see it as a worthwhile investment.
Adonis’ North East Independent Economic Review, which began work six months ago, says that the combined authority "has a leading role to play in a number of areas including housing and place making, tourism and the new economy".
One of the key recommendations is that a new transport delivery agency called ‘Transport North East’ should be set up with "responsibility for the strategic planning of transport", serving the combined authority.
The report states: "The agency should be tasked with developing and implementing a transport strategy to serve the overall economic and spatial development strategy of the combined authority, and a prioritised transport investment programme."
Adonis said the agency would manage government funding for major transport schemes, which the Department for Transport is devolving to local areas. It would replace the existing Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority, the report adds.
The report goes on to say that the North East "needs a considerable increase in new housing" which should be "developed in sustainable locations, close to employment centres and with easy access to public transport networks".
But it notes: "Developers in the region and property professionals are of the strong view that both land supply and the planning process is hindering new development."
It goes on to say that developers "believe there are too few easy to develop sites in attractive locations to meet demand" and that "many brownfield sites are unlikely to be developed until a healthy market is well established".
The report recommends that the proposed combined authority should "help stimulate the market" by working with developers and using funding from government housing quango the Homes & Communities Agency to bring forward new housing. It also says "innovative" market products should be created to make it easier for families buy homes.
The report further calls for the LEP and local authorities to work with the government to make sure there is comprehensive superfast broadband connectivity across rural areas by 2016.
The report was welcomed by Greg Clark, financial secretary to the Treasury, and former Conservative Party chairman Lord Heseltine, whose own economic growth report was published last autumn.
For better or worse — and playwright Samuel D. Hunter is smart enough to see it's probably very much for the better — the play titled "The Whale" has become known in theater circles as the play about the really fat guy stuck on a couch.
Every new drama penned in a crowded marketplace needs a calling card, and the opening image of Hunter's "The Whale," which will open Monday in Chicago at the Biograph Theatre after drawing much attention at New York's Playwrights Horizons last fall, is a doozy: As the curtain rises, you discover a man who weighs 600 pounds blinking back at you.
Aside from allowing an audience to marvel at the miracles of fat suits (Dale Calandra, who plays the obese Charlie at Victory Gardens, is nowhere close to that weight), there is the sheer force of an image wherein the main character of a play seems to wear his neuroses right on his body.
You wouldn't say that "The Whale" was the breakthrough play for Hunter, who is just 31, hails from Idaho and studied at the University of Iowa. That title rightly belongs to his "A Bright New Boise."
But there is no question that the New York success of "The Whale" has, well, supersized Hunter's career.
He says he didn't start out writing "The Whale" as a play about a really fat guy. "I did not think that the main character would be 600 pounds," Hunter said in an interview this week.
Rather, he said, he wanted to pen something about empathy and honesty, after musing on such matters while teaching writing at Rutgers University. But such qualities can be ephemeral and, well, "The Whale" has stuck.
And he's fine with the notion that this is the play about the really fat guy on the couch, stuck like a Beckettian hero of his own tragedy. Mostly fine, anyway.
"Well, it does rub me the wrong way sometimes," Hunter said. "But if people come into this play thinking it is about a fat guy, then maybe the journey for them is a bit more surprising."
One interesting question is how much of a role Chicago will play in Hunter's exploding career. Hunter is, for the record, a prolific playwright. "The Whale" (directed at Victory Gardens by Joanie Schultz) is not his only play in Chicago at present: LiveWire Chicago is staging his 2011 work, "A Permanent Image," at the Storefront Theatre. It is a moving piece about a family in crisis, and it sits on my list of recommended shows.
But the main Chicago connection for Hunter is to be Victory Gardens, which just announced him as a new ensemble member. Given all the changes at that theater company, which is still reeling from the force of the transition to new artistic leadership under Chay Yew, Hunter is treading carefully in Chicago.
"It is important," he said, "for me not to waltz into Chicago as a new ensemble playwright and assume Chicago loves me. If they like my work, then I very much want to become part of this incredible community. I am thinking of this as my introduction."
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