Waverley Council ban gas stoves and heaters in new developments
Homeowners in Sydney’s well-heeled eastern suburbs have been banned from using gas heating or cooking appliances in newly-built homes, under orders by a local council.
NSW
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Homeowners in Sydney’s well-heeled eastern suburbs have been banned from using gas heating or cooking appliances in newly-built homes, under orders by the local council.
New developments in the Waverley Council area instead must have electricity-powered heating and cooking, with natural-gas powered appliances also banned from being included in renovated homes.
It comes after the council quietly ushered in new planning conditions at the end of last year forbidding the installation of gas stoves, gas ovens and gas heating in new residential developments.
The council says the move, which was greenlit in December, will improve indoor air quality in homes as well as helping the council area reach net zero emissions by 2035.
But the move has drawn criticism as an example of government overreach, as well as raising questions over whether banning gas in homes will have a positive impact on emissions.
Jon Seeley, the managing director of Seeley International which manufactures airconditioning and gas appliances, was sceptical over whether the ban would lead to lower emissions.
“Given the state’s reliance on coal as an energy source, now and for years to come, pushing people from gas to electric appliances will only result in emissions going up,” he said.
“It is an inconvenient truth that is routinely ignored by those who have jumped on the anti-gas bandwagon.”
Fossil fuels including coal accounted for 71 per cent of total electricity generation in Australia in 2021, according to the federal government’s energy department.
The ban also comes despite Waverley Council’s own analysis across 2016-2017 showing gas was responsible for just 6.2 per cent of emissions – compared to electricity contributing 62 per cent of emissions.
Stephen Galilee, CEO of the NSW Minerals Council, said “Councillors voting for this better hope there are no future blackouts”.
“This is typical of the ridiculous virtue-signalling that only makes sensible, rational energy outcomes harder to achieve,” he said.
Liberal Democrats MP John Ruddick said the move was an example of “massive government overreach”.
“If people don’t want to live in a building where there’s gas fire stoves, they’re free not to live there,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Waverley Council said the proposed changes were publicly exhibited from August 8 to September 19.
She said residents “have clearly demonstrated that they are committed to helping make sustainability second nature” and that no complaints about the change to cooking appliances had been received by the council since the ban came into place.
“By replacing gas with electric appliances powered by renewable energy, households can save up to $3000 per year as well as improving indoor air quality and health,” she said.
Waverley’s gas ban comes after Canterbury-Bankstown Council in 2021 banned gas fittings in new-build apartments in the Bankstown and Campsie CBDs, in a bid to force them electric.
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