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