3 Interpreting the Concept of a 'National Programme'
3.1 The Ministry's brief for the social drivers project
The social drivers work stream was commissioned as an integral part of the Ministry's Warm Homes project. As noted earlier, the Warm Homes project is investigating and developing possible national programmes that work with regional and local government, energy suppliers, manufacturers and communities to achieve the aims discussed above.
How should the concept of 'a national programme' be interpreted in a practical way? What roles and responsibilities are to be exercised at central government level? What roles and responsibilities are to be exercised at regional government level? What roles and responsibilities are to be exercised at local government and community level? Note that in addressing these questions the discussion below is intended to be illustrative rather than strictly prescriptive.
3.2 Interpreting the concept of 'a national programme' in light of the findings on social drivers and the evolving context of the Warm Homes initiative
Many towns and cities around New Zealand currently experience significant winter-time air pollution problems, created predominantly by householders' use of solid fuels to heat their homes. The problem has been recognised by policy-makers as sufficiently serious to trigger the development of a National Environmental Standard for Air Quality, which includes prohibitions on certain activities, design standards for home heating technologies, and targets for ambient air quality, with the requirement for regional councils to ensure compliance by 2013.
The policy drivers for a national response on air quality problems have included considerations of the health costs and consequences of the existing situation. The dual outcomes of warmer homes and cleaner air have significant public and personal health benefits. This has implications for advocacy efforts as well as national-level funding, since the latter is determined largely on a population basis anyway.
The National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy (NEECS) also drew justification for some of its residential sector initiatives from the expectation that it would result in improved health and wellbeing outcomes. Since improvements to home insulation are an integral part of any response to air pollution/cold homes problems, alignment with the NEECS is desirable.
Consequently, the consultants recommend some identifiable roles and responsibilities for central government agencies in any national Warm Homes programme.
National-level components of a national Warm Homes programme
To begin with, there are some statutory responsibilities. The Ministry for the Environment is responsible for the NES for Air Quality and for holding regional councils accountable for its implementation. The Ministry of Health is charged with the responsibility for promoting improvements in public health outcomes, while the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) is charged with promoting (among other things) improvements in the energy performance of the nation's housing stock, a role that may also relate to the statutory responsibilities of the Department of Building and Housing.
These national agencies have policy and strategy roles requiring co-ordination, including whole-of-government advocacy, co-ordination of central government funding contributions through various budget votes, and other specific initiatives that may help support a nationwide Warm Homes programme. However, these national-level agencies have little direct involvement in the implementation of such a programme; management of air quality is the responsibility of the regional councils.
Although they have to comply with the same outcomes, there should be no compulsion to adopt a standardised programme since each air shed and its communities may be very different (see Appendix C for examples). Regional and local levels of a national programme should be linked through adopting the same general principles, and by promoting the opportunity for communities in one part of the country to learn from experiences in other parts of the country.
Regional-level components of a national Warm Homes programme
Meeting the requirements of the NES is the statutory responsibility of regional councils. It should be noted that if a region does not have air quality problems, then there will be no additional requirements on the council. However, because of the nature of their statutory functions, regional councils do not generally have experience in dealing with large numbers of individual households in the same way that public health agencies and professionals are accustomed to doing.
Thus, while regional councils have the responsibility for developing a regional strategy/air quality plan, it is appropriate that this be implemented through regional partnership with district health boards and local partnerships with territorial local authorities (TLAs) and other community-level organisations to promote its implementation. Regional councils also have responsibility for addressing regional aspects of funding and any funding should be commensurate to the size of the problem.
It is important for regional councils to demonstrate programme leadership in their regions, but in ways that encourage the broadest possible involvement of other community agencies to help achieve successful programme implementation in the limited time available.
Local-level components of a national Warm Homes programme
Under the new Local Government Act, TLAs have the responsibility to work with their communities in pursuit of long term community outcomes – social, environmental and economic. The Local Government Act does not envisage that the TLAs be solely responsible for achieving the long term community outcomes identified in their Long Term Council Community Plans. Rather, the expectation is that TLAs will work with other groups in the community (and levels of government) to achieve these outcomes. This principle can be applied equally to achieving improved air quality and warm and healthy homes in each TLA area.
The concept of a national programme is played out at the local level by advocating and supporting the application of successful programme principles in local contexts, and by distributing central government resources to support local responses. At the local level TLAs are recommended to work with other local stakeholders to implement specific programmes that fall under the general Warm Homes umbrella. Thus TLAs are recommended to act to encourage community buy-in across all segments of residential ratepayers, foster local collaborative initiatives for service delivery, and encourage commercial stakeholders (with resource consenting interests) to become involved as early as possible, to build the broadest possible momentum for change. Programme leadership by TLAs is also important.
As noted above, it is recommended that TLAs work with other local stakeholders, including:
- any community organisations that have established relationships with significant groups of households in the community (eg, primary health organisations, and service organisations such as Plunket and Age Concern)
- commercial enterprises or community trusts directly involved in delivering home heating services (dwelling assessments, technology selection, technology installation, related funding)
- other organisations in the local community that have interests in terms of requiring new or renewed air discharge consents in the future.
It is vital that there be a shared vision, and close co-operation between the regional council and the TLA for each area.
Top-down versus bottom-up
Although the outline provided above suggests a top-down approach, starting with central government institutions, the consultants point out that the outline has been provided to illustrate roles, not a hierarchy. Indeed, the consultants make it very clear from the 'Key messages' and 'Recommendations' that key success factors for achieving the desired outcomes will require local action, including actions, initiatives and responses from non-government organisations and commercial players.
