Home owners have enough money to make their homes more sustainable themselves, according to De Nederlandsche Bank in an estimate of the financial position of households. Macroeconomist Arnoud Boot calls it good news that 95 percent of homeowners have enough money in hand for sustainability. ‘You can’t leave everything to the government.’
You see it positively, why?
We immediately look to the government for almost all measures related to sustainability. The government must step in, compensate and keep people out of the wind. But the DNB has now dared to say that people can do it themselves. That is actually what you want as a society. You can’t leave everything to the government. A powerful and resilient society is one where we all pull together.
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But you see an important consequence, what then?
Society is more resilient. If there are energy shocks, i.e. shocks in the price of energy that will undoubtedly occur, we must be prepared for them. We must ensure that we as a society can cope with this and that people do not immediately get into trouble. It is therefore essential for the country’s resilience that the government sets standards.
‘I have not yet heard a politician who says: ‘The people can do it themselves.’ This means they lose votes somewhere in the country.’
How?
We have seen it with office buildings, for example. It has been enforced that the energy label of offices must be high. And what do we see? The market and society will solve it. The government actually became redundant at that point.
But aren’t people then forced to spend their precious savings?
If you impose that on a nurse, it won’t work. A politician will therefore never make a statement like DNB is doing now. I have not yet heard a politician who says: ‘The people can do it themselves.’ This means they lose votes somewhere in the country.
But if you think one step further: What is an effective way to implement this? One way is to make it mandatory that a house has a minimum energy label when sold or that the buyer achieves this within one year. It ensures that at that time it is included in the price. The buyer sees that he or she is buying a well-insulated house, so is willing to pay more for it.
