Lower bills. Better transport. Smarter growth.

A Box Hill Home Energy Upgrade Program — zero-interest loans and stacked rebates for renters, owner-occupiers, and body-corporate apartments — targeted at the older Box Hill housing stock that bleeds the most heat in winter and absorbs the most in summer.

• Insulation, draught-sealing, efficient heating and cooling, hot-water electrification.
• A Shared Solar Dividend for strata buildings — community solar and battery access that reduces communal levies and increases property values. Box Hill is a vertical suburb. Its energy plan has to match its skyline.
• Renter-eligible upgrades, with landlord protections built in.
• 2.6 million Victorians now get 3 hours of free midday power daily. The upgrade program will include smart controls and appliance guidance so Box Hill households — especially home-based workers and small businesses — capture that value in full.

A standing partnership between Whitehorse Council, Environment Victoria, Eastern Climate Action Melbourne, Lighter Footprints and our local neighbourhood houses — to coordinate electrification advice, group-buy purchasing, and on-the-ground support for Box Hill households making the switch.

Box Hill's multicultural community is among the most energy bill-stressed in Victoria — and consistently among the last to access rebates and upgrade programs. We're working with Environment Victoria to ensure Hub outreach runs in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese. No family should pay a "Linguistic Tax" on their power bill.

Pilot 3–5 neighbourhood batteries on suitable Council and school sites across Box Hill — explicitly designed for renters and apartment dwellers who can't put solar on their own roof.

• Open access regardless of tenure.
• Transparent community ownership models and revenue-sharing.
• Co-designed with the local houses and EV / energy community groups already doing the work.

Proposals to impose a 2km buffer on wind energy would eliminate an estimated $2 billion in renewable investment — forcing Victoria to fill the gap with peak gas, which costs four times more per unit than wind. Every day Box Hill households remain tethered to global gas markets is a day their bills are set overseas — not here. Energy sovereignty isn't just an environmental argument. It's a budget argument.

• Free public transport for under-18s.
• Off-peak fare relief for Health Care Card holders, pensioners, people with disability, carers, and asylum seekers.
• Apprentice, TAFE and jobseeker fare subsidies tied to active enrolment or job-search status.
• Restored frequency on local bus routes feeding into Box Hill Station.

• Fast-charging hubs at Box Hill Central, Box Hill Hospital and major sports facilities.
• Kerbside charging across Box Hill's residential streets, prioritised by community survey.
• Council car-park charging rolled out as standard, not bespoke.

• Open space protected as a planning condition, not a planning afterthought.
• Tree canopy retention and replacement targets written into precinct planning.
• SRL precinct accountability — specific, published green-infrastructure obligations on every developer.
• A Gas-Free Commercial Zone pathway for Box Hill's dining precinct — supporting local restaurants and cafés to switch to high-efficiency electric kitchens through staged, interest-free upgrade funding. Cleaner air, lower running costs, safer kitchens.

Every measure on this page does at least one of four things at the same time: it cuts a household bill, it improves a health outcome, it builds out infrastructure Box Hill needs anyway, or it strengthens community capacity. Climate action that fails the bill test, the health test, the infrastructure test and the community test isn't on this page.

• The SEC is already here. Box Hill Hospital and local schools are being powered by State Electricity Commission renewable energy — saving taxpayer money that flows back into nurses, teachers, and services. Expanding this model insulates the public budget from global energy volatility.
• Debt reduction through energy. Moving Box Hill households off gas locks in savings that don't fluctuate with international commodity markets. It's the most durable form of cost-of-living relief available.