Shelter NSW has lodged its submission to the NSW Government’s investigation into Minimum Energy Efficiency Rental Standards (MEERS), calling for ambitious and effective reforms to ensure people who rent their home – and particularly those living on lower incomes – have access to safe and comfortable housing, and more broadly improve the quality, affordability and sustainability of rental housing across the state.
Last Friday, as I was putting the finishing touches to Shelter NSW’s submission, I had the pleasure (and curse) to be occasionally interrupted by two young children (ages 5 and 7). While I’ve always been a strong believer that a good test for important and valuable public policy is whether it can be explained in a few sentences to a child, that one was particularly easy. Questioned, as usual, as to what I was doing and why (those who spend time with children will know), I answered that I was writing rules to make sure that everyone has a cool house in summer, and a warm house in winter.
“That’s a really good idea!”, they said. And though comments were made that what I was writing was horribly long, they seemed to think it was a no-brainer.
And in many ways, minimum energy efficiency rental standards are one of those ‘unicorn policies’ that can deliver a wide range of health, socio-economic, and environmental benefits, but we must get the implementation and compliance pathways right to ensure that benefits are delivered rapidly to those who need them the most.
Too many renters live in homes that are dangerously hot in summer, consistently cold in winter, difficult to heat or cool, and expensive to run. These challenges disproportionately affect low-income households, older people, people with disability, families with children and others facing disadvantage.
Introducing minimum energy efficiency standards would help ensure that all renters have access to homes that are healthier, safer and more affordable to live in. Our submission highlights the wide-ranging benefits of MEERS, including lower energy bills, improved physical and mental health outcomes, reduced energy hardship, greater climate resilience, lower greenhouse gas emissions and support for local jobs and economic activity.
Shelter NSW proposes an ambitious but practical framework combining guaranteed benefits and strong protections for renters with practical implementation pathways for all rental housing providers. Broad coverage, robust enforcement, transparency (through mandatory disclosure at point of advertising and lease) and a staged implementation process are key to delivering benefits quickly while supporting compliance across different housing types.
Enforcement, however, cannot be left to renters. The power imbalance inherent to renting your home means that enforcement must be led proactively by government rather than relying on renters to identify and pursue breaches. And any targeted support measures to help landlords undertake upgrades must ensure tenants are protected from unfair rent increases or displacement, and prevent ‘double dipping’.
The introduction of MEERS represents a rare opportunity to deliver substantial social, economic, health and environmental benefits through a single policy reform. In short, it’s a really good idea indeed.
Shelter NSW will continue to work constructively with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, NSW Fair Trading and the Rental Commissioner, community sector partners and industry stakeholders to support the successful design and implementation of MEERS in NSW. Our focus will remain on ensuring that the benefits of these reforms flow rapidly to low-income renters and families, who have the most to gain from healthier homes, lower energy costs and improved housing quality, and more broadly to all people who rent their home.