Lay summary
For historical reasons, Māori have tended to live in older housing, much of it built before incremental changes to the building code began to address interior living conditions, beginning in 1979. Numerous programmes have recognised the needs of Māori communities arising from substandard housing, and have responded by introducing special funding arrangements, insulation retrofits and other upgrades. This research investigates the interior living conditions of older housing in the Ngāti Whare Rohe, the social implications of sub-standard housing and the manifestation of respiratory disease.