Governments should require landlords to reveal the energy performance of homes put up for sale or lease as part of a policy blitz aimed at helping low-income households cut power bills and improve their comfort, according to a report by the Australian Council of Social Service.
The report, released on Monday, also calls for a $2bn federal fund and coordinated policies across all levels of government to assist less-advantaged residents tap emerging technologies. They should also follow Victoria by banning new gas connections.
“There are about 1.8m low-income households in Australia who cannot afford to escape extreme temperatures because they’re stuck in inefficient homes that are expensive to warm or cool,” said Acoss’s energy program director, Kellie Caught.
“Funding upgrades to make homes electric, solar and climate resilient will reduce poverty, protect against heat-related illness, bring down the cost of power and create local jobs while turbocharging Australia’s emissions reduction targets.”
The report noted so-called split incentives – where landlords had little incentive to help tenants reduce their energy bills – were impediments holding back renters from improving the efficiency of their homes. Of the 2.4m private rental properties, more than 270,000 housed people on the lowest 20% of incomes.
The average energy performance of Australia’s 8m dwellings was also just 1.7 stars compared with the 7 stars – out of a possible 10 – required of new residences. Australian homes contribute more than 11% of national greenhouse emissions.
Energy efficiency is often neglected in policy and media discussions even though it is one of the cheapest ways to cut energy usage and emissions, as recognised by the International Energy Agency, among others.
While the Albanese government has set up the $1.3bn Household Energy Upgrades Fund (Heuf), it won’t overcome financial barriers for people on low incomes or lend to Community Housing Providers or First Nations community-controlled housing, Acoss said.
Jenny McAllister, the assistant minister for climate change and energy, said “the community sector worked hard over the last decade of climate denial and delay to bring attention to the importance of energy efficiency”.
“Small changes can make an enormous difference in the comfort and cost of cooling or heating a home,” McAllister said. “A total of $600m of commonwealth and state funding will make an enormous difference to the wellbeing and energy bills of at least 60,000 families living in social housing across the country.”
Alan Pears, a senior RMIT industry fellow, said the Acoss report was comprehensive and reasonable.
“The challenge is to mobilise governments to act,” Pears said. “My review of EU progress in housing retrofits showed they have also struggled to drive ‘deep’ upgrades, which are really what’s needed to deliver health benefits.”
Apartment refits, though, created additional barriers, given the mix of owners and renters. Many blocks also often had one external facade, with a lot of glazing and little or no shading, making summer energy performance “a major issue”, he said.
CoreLogic, a property data group that has worked with CSIRO to develop artificial intelligence for improving energy efficiency, said a mandatory performance disclosure “should not be difficult [to introduce] as this is standard practice in many other parts of the world, such as the UE/UK energy performance certificates”.
“From a market readiness perspective, however, there are some barriers that impact timing,” a CoreLogic spokesperson said. “These include: lack of market capacity and a nationally standardised processes to assess existing properties and create energy performance certificates for existing homes at scale.”
