The federal government will has announced that inspections of insulated homes will end this year, with its review showing the risk of a fire had fallen to levels seen before the botched installation scheme.

Yesterday, Greg Combet, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and Mark Dreyfus, Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency announced that the Government will continue to undertake targeted inspections until the commitment to inspect a minimum of 150,000 homes with non-foil insulation is reached.

It is anticipated that this will occur by mid 2011 and at that time targeted inspections will cease.

And speaking to the press, Combet moved to clarify the general industry of any wrongdoing, saying “it is not to be imputed that the reputable installers and insulation manufacturers in this country have somehow done some wrong."

The Home Insulation Safety Plan has so far cost $190 million.

Under the Foil Insulation Safety Program (FISP) all households with foil insulation installed under the HIP were offered a safety inspection, with the option of having the foil insulation removed or, on the advice of a licensed electrician, safety switches installed.

To provide further reassurance to all HIP households, the Government will continue to offer free inspections to any household that previously has not had an inspection and has concerns about insulation installed under the HIP until June 2012.

The CSIRO was commissioned to conduct a statistical analysis of the of the safety inspection results.

This analysis examined the extent of insulation related fire incidents that occurred prior to the commencement of the HIP and compared them to the rate at which fire incidents were occurring in homes with insulation installed under HIP.

The overall results show that 24 per cent of dwellings did not comply with Australian Building Codes standards.

The CSIRO report states: “Safety risk is defined as failing to meet the building codes and other relevant standards identified under the Home Insulation Program Guidelines. It is expressed as a percentage of dwellings inspected. Safety risk is not the same as the fire risk. The HIP guidelines prescribe conformance to relevant Australian Standards and the Building Code of Australia where relevant. These tend to be conservative, so that many relatively minor departures may not constitute a risk of fire. Further, safety risk is assessed at a point in time and conditions in the roof space will change over time due to weather, rodents, human activity and so on.”

The full reports, along with a comprehensive update, will be made available at http://www.climatechange.gov.au/en/government/programs-and-rebates/hisp/reports.aspx

David Wheeldon

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