Ma Prime Rénov, a new bonus for heating sector in France

Ma Prime Renov in 2021, after CITE!

by Nicolas Audigane & Cyril Esnault from Poeles.Net

Ma Prime Rénov ’is the new national scheme which aims to finance energy renovation work in French private homes. It replaces the Energy Transition Tax Credit (CITE). Let’s take stock after a year and a half of operation.

An ambitious premium

Previously, the CITE allocated financial assistance of 30%, on the amount including tax of the wood-burning appliance. Judging that the renovation work on the individual stock was not going fast enough and that they were not ambitious enough, the Government announced, in April 2019, a complete review of the aids and their allocation to boost the renovation of homes the French.

Thus, in January 2020, the Government deployed this new financial aid system for the energy renovation of single-family homes by commissioning the National Housing Agency (ANAH). Its name: “Ma Prime Rénov”.

For the households concerned, the promise was a good one: the eligible individual no longer had to advance money to benefit from a tax credit the following year.

A hasty launch …

But now, the launch of “Ma Prime Rénov” in January 2020 encountered many difficulties:
– late launch of the website,
– computer bug due to too many consumer connections to the site,
– registration of professionals to validate requests for work made difficult,
– processing time and payments over six to eight months, etc.

The development of this bonus has also been made difficult by the confinement linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
To top it off, this device initially excluded the wealthiest households while these households represented more than 60% of energy renovation work carried out in France in 2019!

In October 2020, the government decided to accelerate by announcing adjustments to the national system with the aim of making it more readable and arousing envy among households:
– Integration of Energy Saving Certificates (EEC).
– Consideration of all French households (all households once again become eligible for national aid),
– Integration into the system of landlords and condominiums. This integration was not initially scheduled until January 2021),
– Revision of the amount of premiums,
– Provision of a financial subsidy for more ambitious global renovations, etc.

The figures suggest it: In the first quarter of 2021, Anah received nearly 15,000 new cases each week for an average aid ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 €. This is a lot and even more than what was budgeted.
Wood heating holds an important place:
“The installation of a heat pump and the installation of a pellet stove are the most requested gestures” indicated the Ministry of Ecological Transition in Batiactu.

But when analyzing the novelties of October 2020, a few points call out:

– “Intermediate” and “Well-off” households, within the meaning of the ANAH resource scales, are officially integrated into the system but in reality they only get a premium linked to Energy Saving Certificates (EEC) and no help concerning the stoves with “Ma Prime Rénov ‘”.

– The eligibility scales are classified into four color codes: blue, yellow, purple and pink. The creation of these scales makes it difficult to read the device even if the interest is well understood: to allocate more aid to the poorest households.
Faced with the difficulties of individuals in knowing whether they are eligible or not, field professionals become the intermediaries of the public authorities in the promotion of “Ma Prime Rénov”. If the notion of advice is important, this novelty takes a lot of time for professionals who also have a lot of things to manage in this period of health crisis.

“We lack information to help our customers. “Says Xavier VINCENT (XV), manager of the company” Cheminées Nicolas “based in Nantes (Orvault) and” It is very difficult to guide our customers because you have to know the income and the situation of our customers. I understand clients who do not wish to disclose information about them: income, annuities, etc. ”

– And there are these processing times! Remember that the ambition of this aid is to speed up renovation work … not to slow it down. As Xavier VINCENT points out, “We must also wait for the return of the National Housing Agency (ANAH), which is handling the cases. This slows down our customers in their energy renovation work, and so do we ”.

What are the prospects for Ma Prime Rénov?

First of all, the public authorities assured that it would be maintained in 2021 and that the necessary additional budgets would be taken from the recovery plan.

As for the difficulties encountered in the daily management of “Ma Prime Rénov ‘” pointed out by all the professionals in the field, the Senator of Maine-et-Loire, Emmanuel CAPUS, vice-president of the Senate finance committee, acknowledges this: “ The device still has to get around, but the elements at my disposal allow me to be quite confident for the future. I believe that the dynamics are the right ones, and that it is necessary to wait until the device gradually increases in load. ”

The system is indeed called upon to evolve each year, like “fire” the CITE. The public authorities regularly insist on the desire to streamline the processing of cases and the desire to simplify the system for rapid deployment of energy renovation work in our homes.

In any case, it is comforting to see that domestic wood heating occupies an important place in this device. This should be seen as a support that we hope will last from the public authorities.

INSERT 1

Subject to having work carried out by an RGE professional in a main house built for more than two years and not having received financial assistance for an energy renovation within five years, the individual receives financial assistance. which is paid to him a few weeks after the end of the work. This assistance is a fixed premium calculated on the basis of the type of equipment installed and household income.

In addition, there are other eligibility criteria:
– Call on a professional, who will carry out the work, who has recognized “RGE” training (Recognized Guarantor of the Environment)
– Choose the equipment for the site that meets the criteria for obtaining aid. For example, for domestic heating with wood logs or pellets, the appliance must demonstrate energy and environmental performance of the “7 stars” class of the Flamme Verte label