An extra $1.3bn to upgrade Australia’s energy inefficient homes might not do much – here’s what would help | Tristan Edis

Yet even in the case of those who own their own home, providing them with loans is just a small part of an effective solution to our poor standard of housing.

We already have government funding supporting loans for energy upgrades, and have for many years. The government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation has been providing funding to a range of lending organisations that provide discounted finance to build or buy homes with high energy efficiency ratings or to finance energy efficient equipment and solar systems. If these lenders were being overwhelmed with demand, then the Clean Energy Finance Corporation could easily give them more.

Don’t get me wrong, provision of low-cost finance can be a useful tool in driving energy efficiency but there are other policy tools, which receive a glancing reference in the budget, which are vastly more important. The issue though for politicians is that to use them effectively would require courage to take on entrenched interests in the real estate lobby and manufacturers who have failed to modernise their product offerings.

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