Australian renters are being slugged almost $440 million a year to stay connected to gas, analysis has shown, even though landlords control whether their properties remain on the network.
Rewiring Australia released the finding on Friday and called for changes to make property owners pay gas connection charges, in a move it says could motivate more landlords to electrify rental homes.
The call comes a day after the Australian Energy Market Commission warned some gas customers could face higher bills in the short term as providers sought to recover costs from a shrinking customer base.
Rewiring Australia analysed data from Energy Consumers Australia and found almost half (49 per cent) of those who rented homes were connected to mains gas supply.
These 1.63 million households were paying about $440 million in fixed charges for gas connections whether they used them or not, and had no choice to upgrade appliances and switch to electricity.
