EQC and Fletcher EQR announce repair timeframes

December 20, 2011

The Earthquake Commission and Fletcher EQR have today announced their targets for the repair of about 100,000 earthquake damaged homes in the Canterbury Home Repair Programme.

EQC General Manager Customer Services Bruce Emson says the main target for the Canterbury Home Repair Programme is 80 percent of homes in the managed repair programme completed by 2014.

“Within this target, EQC will prioritise the worst damaged homes – those with over $50,000 worth of damage. We hope to have these completed by mid-2013, but it will depend on the number of properties which ultimately fall into this category. We will update our customers on progress against this target as we go.

“These targets are demanding but achievable. We have adopted them to provide the people in our managed repair programme with a sense of the timeframes involved, to help with their own planning and decision-making.”

EQC will regularly update all customers on their repairs, starting next year.

“We have already completed over 7000 houses, and there are at least another 16,000 in progress, either with planning or actual repair work.

“With EQC completing all post-February full assessments, planning can ramp up as the settlement details for all EQC customers are finalised.

“EQC assessed over 190,000 properties, and completing this task ahead of schedule shows our determination to meet stretch goals.”

Fletcher EQR General Manager David Peterson says the programme has accelerated significantly in recent months, with the expansion of the Hub network and contracting resources, along with the reducing frequency of aftershocks and emergency work.

“Our recent run rate has been above 1,400 completed home repairs per month, which translates to more than 70 homes per day. Another way of looking at it is that we are returning between $40 million and $50 million per month to the local economy through payments to contractors.

“Our continuing expansion will be based on a ‘neighbourhood’ work pattern to enable contractor and trade resources to be used efficiently. This pattern will enable us to indicate to customers when we will be working in each area. Inevitably, the timeframes will evolve as we work through the programme, but our intention is to work with EQC so that this information will be provided as soon as possible.

”In the meantime we are building our contractor numbers and project management resources to meet the coming demand.

“To date we have allocated work as it has become available. Going forward, with the workload fully defined and ready to action, it is clear we will need more resources. With that in mind we have been recruiting contractors from within Canterbury as the first priority, and also from the rest of New Zealand.”

Further background information is available at www.canterbury.eqc.govt.nz/repairs/canterbury-home-repair-programme

ENDS

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