The Andrews Labor Government is improving environmental outcomes and lowering bills for social housing tenants in the Northcote Electorate with completely gas-free social housing builds.

The State Member for Northcote, Kat Theophanous, today announced that the state’s Homes Victoria projects at Walker Street in Northcote and Oakover Road in Preston will be built without any connection to gas – a considerable departure from the original plans.

The move follows strong advocacy from Ms Theophanous, who has worked closely with local residents, Homes Victoria and project developers MAB to elevate the issue and explore opportunities to enhance the environmental credentials of the sites.

“It is my strong view that before we move wholeheartedly into construction of these inner-north sites we have a unique opportunity to do more, go further and deliver truly gas-free homes,” Ms Theophanous said in the Victorian Parliament on 26 October 2021.

The Andrews Labor Government is delivering approximately 200 new homes across the two sites, transforming aged and dilapidated commission housing into safe, secure, modern and accessible homes. However, having gone through initial planning and contracting in 2018, the sites continued to include plans for gas hot water. 

With the changes secured by Ms Theophanous, every home will now be connected to central electric heat pumps rather than gas hot water. The homes will have 5-star Greenstar ratings and exceed seven-star Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) ratings, as well as contain all electric appliances.

“The Andrews Labor Government is transitioning Victoria to clean energy and we’ve set ambitious targets for zero net emissions. Reducing our reliance on household gas is a key element of this work and that means building more new homes without gas,” said Ms Theophanous.

Earlier in the year Ms Theophanous also called on the Minister for Housing to confirm that the 12,000 new homes being built as part of the $5.3 billion Big Social Housing Build will be gas free.

The Minister confirmed that Labor is increasing the environmental credentials of the new homes with future social housing developments to be gas free, containing all electric energy efficient appliances, including hot water, and solar photovoltaic systems as standard.

“This is a fantastic outcome for our community, delivering safe and secure housing that meets the needs of residents, reduces energy bills and delivers better outcomes for our environment,” Ms Theophanous said.

The move has been welcomed by local environmental advocates who have been working alongside Ms Theophanous to see these changes made.

“We have been leafletting local residents and businesses to ‘get off gas’. It’s really great that Kat has taken our campaign seriously and advocated within State Government to make this happen,” said local resident, environmental philanthropist and climate activist Sue Mathews.

“The new all-electric public housing builds in Northcote, Preston and North Melbourne can and should be a model for sustainable development into the future. Getting off gas is good for the climate, health and the hip pocket — this is a huge step toward transitioning our state to a renewable future,” said Ms Mathews.

Thanks to these collective efforts, a third Homes Victoria project in North Melbourne will now also be delivered completely gas free. This is the third site being developed in partnership with MAB.

“This was a powerful collaborative effort that speaks to what we can achieve for our community when we work together for a fairer more sustainable future,” said Ms Theophanous, “I look forward to continuing to work closely with my community to secure tangible outcomes that reduce our local emissions and futureproof our suburbs.”

To see more about our local safe and secure housing projects click here: www.kattheophanous.com.au/housing