More homeowners must join district heating to ease costs for social housing, IGN says

More homeowners connecting to a district heating network would help housing associations to make their social housing more sustainable. Housing associations can play an important role in expanding district heating networks in the Netherlands, but only if the transition becomes more affordable for their tenants, a new report by ING has stated.

Currently, it is mainly smaller homes in densely built neighborhoods that are being connected to district heating networks, as this is often the cheapest alternative to natural gas, according to researchers.

However, the fixed costs for tenants are relatively higher than with a gas-fired central heating system. This conflicts with the core mission of housing associations to provide affordable homes, the bank noted. Housing associations will only begin connecting homes on a larger scale if the switch becomes affordable, said ING sector banker Jan Willem Spijkman.

One way of reducing the costs would be to connect more homes to the heating network. The researchers argue that this could be achieved in part by encouraging more homeowners and homeowners’ associations (VvEs) to switch to a district heating network. According to ING, it could also help if homeowners are no longer eligible for heat pump subsidies in neighborhoods where a district heating network is being developed.

The researchers also believe the government should improve existing subsidy programs for district heating networks. In addition, the government could support the investment capacity of housing associations by, for example, improving housing affordability for low-income households through income policy.