Energy renovation: how the government’s trial and error caused the number of construction sites to fall
Communication operation for the renovation. The State launched its “France Rénov tour” on Friday April 19 in Chartres to promote housing renovation assistance schemes. “The objective is to encourage the French to carry out their renovation work, by showing them that through these steps, we are going to them to explain the materials, the procedures, the steps to renovate their home, and that Today, renovating your home is simpler”declared the Minister of Housing, Guillaume Kasbarian.
At the same time, the National Housing Agency (Anah), which initiated the “France Rénov’ tour”, published the same day its figures for the first quarter of 2024. And the atmosphere is not festive since less than 80,000 homes have been renovated, a drop of 43% compared to in the first quarter of last year (PDF link). A figure very far from the government projections which announced, in October, the objective of 200,000 thermal renovations this year. To achieve this, the Ministries of Ecological Transition, Energy Transition and Housing relied on a modification, which became official on January 1, of the rules for obtaining MaPrimeRénov’, the main State aid for the energy renovation of buildings. housing.
On that date, the MaPrimeRénov’ system, launched in 2020 and from which 1.5 million French people have already benefited, focused on large-scale renovations, mainly for thermal strainers (housing classified F and G). To benefit from it, you had to gain at least two energy classes on the energy performance diagnosis, and carry out at least two insulation actions and one ventilation. Aid for the installation of air-water or geothermal heat pumps, or connection to an urban heat network, increased from 1,000 to 2,000 euros for low-income and intermediate households.
Anah, which pilots this system, offered owners of energy sieves wishing to carry out a large-scale renovation involving several projects (insulating walls, changing windows and heating methods, for example) a rate of support of up to “90% for households with very modest incomes”, with a ceiling of 70,000 euros compared to 35,000 euros previously. On paper, these modifications had a dual objective, explained to France 2 Audrey Zermati, strategy director at Effy, a company specializing in energy renovation.
These households beginning these major renovation works had to “systematically [être] accompanied by an independent trusted third party approved by the State”. But these decisions did not have the desired effect and the number of construction sites fell.
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