By Housing Europe
While the majority of the REPowerEU Plan’s objectives can only be implemented in the medium to longer-term, Housing Europe believes that now is the time for affordable and social housing providers to be enabled to supply vulnerable tenants with the energy produced in their buildings. Housing providers have the experience of supporting people to find their path out of energy poverty and maintain a day-to-day relationship with their tenants. This sector is also well-placed to speed up behavioural changes, where it has already been leading the way.
Bent Madsen, Housing Europe’ President, commented at the launch of REPower Action Plan:
“The ambition of social and affordable housing providers – to deliver a fair and green energy transition – remains unchanged. The challenges ahead of us, however, are continuously growing. Inflation has risen to nearly 8% in March 2022, and more than one-third of this high percentage comes from electricity, gas, and other household fuels. This is resulting in massive pressure on households, but also on the capacity of our sector to carry out renovation and improve homes. In the meantime, our network reports a slowdown of over 60% of the much-needed renovation and energy-efficiency projects due to erratic and rapid increases in the prices of materials“.
Read Housing Europe’s position and Watch the recording of Housing Europe’s Webinar from the day before the launch of REPowerEU where we discuss the impact of the solutions proposed in the RepowerEU action plan on the social, cooperative, and public housing sector.