<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/electrification-push-to-make-landlord-pay-gas-bills-as-renters-slugged-with-inflated-network-charges/>
"Australian renters are being slugged almost $440 million a year to stay
connected to gas, analysis has shown, even though landlords control whether
their properties remain on the network.
Rewiring Australia released the finding on Friday and called for changes to
make property owners pay gas connection charges, in a move it says could
motivate more landlords to electrify rental homes.
The call comes a day after the Australian Energy Market Commission warned some
gas customers could face higher bills in the short term as providers sought to
recover costs from a shrinking customer base.
Rewiring Australia analysed data from Energy Consumers Australia and found
almost half (49 per cent) of those who rented homes were connected to mains gas
supply.
These 1.63 million households were paying about $440 million in fixed charges
for gas connections whether they used them or not, and had no choice to upgrade
appliances and switch to electricity.
Making renters pay for a decision beyond their control was unreasonable,
Rewiring Australia chief executive Francis Vierboom said, as the cost should go
to the decision-maker.
“We think this is an important fairness reform to make sure that renters aren’t
exposed to ramping fixed costs,” he told
AAP.
“If anyone’s going to face increases in prices because they’re staying attached
to the gas network, it should be the property owners (who) decide to keep
buying gas appliances.”
If landlords replaced gas heating, hot-water tanks and cooktops with electric
appliances, the analysis found, renters could save $1600 a year on average, or
$2.6 billion on a national basis.
Asking landlords to pay gas connection charges would not automatically spark
electric upgrades, Mr Vierboom said, but could encourage more to consider the
switch over time."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
