Tips abound.

Heat to 19 degrees, “go to” tenants, provide for unpaid bills… Social landlords are trying to mitigate the rise in energy prices as well as possible, a central subject of the congress of the HLM movement which begins this Tuesday in Lyon.

Social landlords have had to fight to benefit from the tariff shield, through which the State caps the cost of energy for individuals by compensating the difference with market prices.

The government had already taken several months to include their purchases of gas for collective heating, the most common mode of heating in HLMs.

And their wholesale electricity purchases are still not covered, a flaw that the government has promised to correct very quickly.

“We are worried”

“Where there is an oversight, we repair it,” promised the Minister Delegate for the City and Housing, Olivier Klein, estimating the cost of this measure between 900 million and one billion euros.

Because this omission causes increases in charges, linked to electricity for the common areas (elevators, lighting, car parks, etc.).

Worse, some 100,000 families, or about 2% of social housing, who have collective electric heating, are currently fully exposed to soaring prices.

And after January 1, the tariff shield must be raised, increasing tariffs by 15%.

“We are worried,” warned the president of the Social Union for Housing (USH), Emmanuelle Cosse.

And to add: “Even if the tariff shield is a major effort which curbs the price, for our tenants, in any case there is a considerable effort and 35% live below the poverty line.

»

heat less

Several landlords plan to strictly limit the heating temperature inside housing to 19 degrees, as recommended by public agencies.

In the North, the public office Partenord Habitat will fix, wherever heating is collective, the temperature at 19 degrees during the day and 17 at night.

Where it is individual, actions to raise awareness among tenants are planned.

“We would not want to lead to energy restrictions which could cause partial unemployment in industries in the north of France, which are high consumers”, explains the general manager, Stéphane Boubennec.

“We will try to delay the ignition of the collective heating as much as possible”, adds Cyrille Fabre, director of operations at Paris Habitat.

“Usually it's around October 15th.

Any day beyond this date will be an earned day.

»

Eco-gestures and protection of tenants

In Montpellier, the public social landlord ACM Habitat has set up a "show apartment" with posters raising awareness of eco-gestures.

“Energy sobriety cannot be decreed, it must be explained”, justifies the mayor (PS) Michaël Delafosse.

Households will be equipped with boxes to tell them when to limit their consumption, at peak times, which are the most critical for the network.

“It eases the tension on the network and it reduces the bill for tenants”, continues Anne-Sophie Grave, president of CDC Habitat, a social housing juggernaut which will also offer this system.

Some, anticipating the rise in prices, have already increased the charges for their tenants, in order to avoid a crushing blow at the time of the annual adjustment of the charges.

CDC Habitat has also set up a solidarity fund of 1.15 million euros to support its tenants who are unable to overcome their arrears.

And ACM Habitat informs tenants about existing public aid: energy checks, solidarity funds, etc. “A major problem in our country is the non-use of rights,” says Michaël Delafosse.





Transition

Finally, to reduce needs - and to achieve the climate objectives set by law - landlords are striving to make housing less energy-intensive as quickly as possible.

"We had not anticipated the crisis with the war in Ukraine, of course, nevertheless, the risk of increasing energy prices and especially global warming, we had integrated them", welcomes Emmanuelle Copin, Managing Director assistant at Paris Habitat.

In Montpellier, the last “toaster type” radiators, energy-intensive and inefficient, will be replaced;

and the extensive wood-heated heating network.

Company

Energy crisis: Mayenne votes for a "pull over" day and 52 other measures

Company

Energy crisis: Will universities have to close their doors this winter to limit the bill?

  • Heater

  • Social landlords

  • Energy

  • public housing

  • Company