The NZCPR offers public policy commentary and is headed up by former ACT MP Muriel Newman.

The estimate of which each landlord could be expected to pay for upgrades required to bring properties up to scratch under a  WOF scheme is included among recommendations from the Children’s Commissioner intended to reduce child poverty.

Its recommendations to the Government includes a WOF scheme and a push for insulation and heating. It said there was a shortage of good quality, well-insulated, low-cost and secure rental accommodation.

It also wanted the Government to develop measures to increase the ability of low-income households to purchase their own home and to extend and target its subsidy programme for insulation.

NZCPR spokesman Mike Butler said landlords should be very alarmed at the figures being discussed.

He said early indications among the trials that are operating at present show that more properties fail than pass the test.

The Children’s Commissioner’s working paper included a cost-benefit analysis that showed the total cost of the WOF scheme to the owners of the country’s 465,000 rental properties would be $4.5 billion, or an average cost of $9700 each. 

Butler said the key problem in the rental sector was problem tenants, not problem landlords.

He said the WOF schemes should be scratched, or the Government should be prepared to pay for the private sector’s upgrades.