Successful renovation offensive was completed before Christmas, the posters are still hanging. The head of the Lower Austrian industry: “Grossly negligent”.
It ended on December 20th. The end of “Get out of oil and gas” and the “renovation offensive” came without prior notice.
Only on the homepages of Kommunalkredit and the Climate Ministry was there a brief message that although the legal basis for an extension existed, the funding had been exhausted.
In December there was still a real hype about Austria’s most successful – and most generous – renovation offensive to date. While funding registrations of over 30 million were still arriving in November 2023, local households queued up for more than 500 million euros in funding in the Christmas month. It was leaked from the government negotiations that funding would be cut in view of the budget problems. Applications for building renovations also tripled in 2024.
“Uncertainty”
In the green climate ministry of Leonore Gewessler confirms the success of the campaign. In the past five years, more than a quarter of a million households have replaced oil or gas boilers with climate-friendly heating systems and/or renovated their thermal insulation. 2.3 billion euros were spent on this.
The black-green government had promised budget funding of four billion euros for this by 2027.
“This is grossly negligent,” rages Karl Ochsnerhead of the Lower Austrian Industrial Association and heat pump manufacturer. “At a time when the construction industry is in ruins, how can you quietly and secretly turn off this funding before Christmas?”
The fact that the campaign was stopped, but at the same time continued to be advertised on billboards, “is simply crazy. The end consumers are completely unsettled. Taxpayers are allowed to pay for the advertising.”
Last year, the Climate Ministry launched an information campaign about heating replacement (“The knockout for your old boiler”) on TV, radio and on posters. According to the ministry, the poster bookings run until November 20, 2024. If there were no follow-up bookings, which is usual in December, the posters stayed up. But that is not the case across the board. Cost of the campaign: 2.134 million euros.
Ochsner, the first IV president from the greentech industry and known for clear words, lobbied the coalition negotiators intensively before Christmas. “You can’t just turn something around and say that the new government should take care of whether there will be any funds for it at all,” the industrialist argues for a transition period until mid-2025. And points to Germany, where, according to the Federal Finance Minister, subsidies for heating replacement Jörg Kukies “continue to run as usual without interruption”.
Generous
The renovation offensive was probably the most generous funding campaign ever. Up to 75 percent of the costs of replacing a boiler were subsidized. Distributed according to the now often criticized watering can principle, regardless of the economic situation. Low-income households received up to 100 percent. On average, each household received around 10,000 euros in funding.
Should the state actually continue to pay high-earning homeowners for new heating?
“A social staggering or an adjustment of the funding ratio to the investment, that’s all okay. But not to turn off this offensive without replacement,” argues Ochsner. Politicians should better consider whether there are other subsidies that are no longer up to date, such as the diesel privilege.
According to the Climate Ministry, around half of fossil heating systems are being replaced by heat pumps, followed by wood central heating (39 percent) and ten percent district heating. Ochsner assures that he is not lobbying on his own behalf, “we sell around 80 percent of our heat pumps abroad.”