On 15 November 2022, the AGF held an expert discussion on “The impact of increasing housing and energy costs on families”. Twenty experts from research, family and welfare organisations participated. The meeting took stock of the burdens caused by rising housing and energy costs and discussed possible strategies and measures to relieve families.
The expert discussion started with the topic of housing.
Dr. Konstantin A. Kholodilin from the German Institute for Economic Research presented current data on the housing situation of families and the financial burdens they face as a result of the housing market crisis. He also presented a typology of housing policy instruments to relieve the housing market with their respective advantages and disadvantages as well as potential unintended effects.
After the break, the focus was on “energy”. Dr. Maximilian Stockhausen from the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (Institute of the German Economy) presented, among other things, data on the financial burdens for families due to rising energy prices, differentiated by household type. He also showed calculations on the expected effects of the so called “relief packages I + II” measures by the federal government for different household types. It became clear that single parents and people living alone are among the groups most at risk of energy poverty, even after the government measures.
Mats Kröger from the Berlin School of Economics presented factors influencing the absolute and relative heating costs / energy costs of households differentiated by income groups. He showed which policy options exist to limit gas prices and what effects the respective options have on the additional costs incurred by poor households and the expenditure of the state. Against this background, he explained recommendations of the Gas Commission.
The aim of the closing discussion was to combine the housing and energy policy expertise of the speakers and the competences of the families and welfare associations and to utilize them for the family policy discourse. In addition, the expert discussion served to prepare an expert conference on the same topic, which the AGF is planning for 2022.