Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
Osnabruck (ots)
CDU Economic Council: Government is driving people into poverty in old age with the heating law
Secretary General Steiger fears forced sales – call for district heating connection instead of compulsory heat pumps
Osnabruck. The Economic Council of the CDU has accused the federal government of “destroying large parts of the assets of German citizens” with its heating law. Many homeowners would not be able to afford new heating and would have to sell their house to avert horrendous fines, Economic Council General Secretary Wolfgang Steiger warned in an interview with the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ). “Due to the loss in value of their own property, the federal government is driving people into poverty in old age.” Owning your own property as part of your old-age provision is becoming “a cost trap for millions of citizens”.
Beyond the big cities, residential buildings that are more than 100 years old dominate in many places, in parts of East Germany the proportion is more than half, Steiger justified his warnings. Such old houses can “hardly be prepared energetically with justifiable effort so that they can be heated with a heat pump”. Many families in rural areas are therefore afraid for their property and thus for their old-age provision. “If neither the prescribed renovation nor demolition and new construction are economically viable, the only option is to move to a rented apartment,” said Steiger.
The CDU Economic Council is therefore calling for fundamental changes to the traffic light draft law, which is to be passed by the Bundestag by the summer break. Instead of forcing the hasty installation of heat pumps, the opportunities for district heating would have to be used much better, which is the “only economically viable option” for many existing buildings, but has so far only been available to “a fraction” of the houses. Steiger said that the federal government had to give the municipalities more support in setting up heating networks. Without municipal heating planning, meaningful investment decisions are not possible at all.
The link to the web article: www.noz.de/44593128
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