The federal government wants to invest a total of 14.5 billion euros in social housing over the next five years. Two billion euros are planned for the current year.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The “Affordable Housing Alliance” announced by Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) will start with a delay on April 27 on the Euref campus in Berlin. This emerges from the letter of invitation to the participants, which is available to the Handelsblatt.
“Please bring your experiences and contributions in a goal- and implementation-oriented manner for more affordable housing,” the letter says. “We can only be successful together if everyone pulls together and works towards more affordable housing in their areas of responsibility.”
After taking office, the federal building minister declared that the alliance should meet for the first time in March. However, the SPD politician is in the middle of the construction work: For the first time since 1998 there is an independent Ministry of Construction.
Geywitz himself will chair the alliance’s top group. In the committee, representatives of the federal states and municipalities, the construction and housing industry, private landlords, tenants’ associations, trade unions and environmental organizations should discuss together the subsidy and framework conditions under which more social housing can be created in Germany.
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Specifically, the invitation is addressed to Baden-Württemberg, which currently chairs the conference of building ministers of the federal states, as well as to Hamburg, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. The German Association of Cities and Towns, the German Association of Districts and the German Association of Towns and Municipalities have also been invited.
Industry associations invited include the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW), the Central Real Estate Committee (ZIA), Haus & Grund, the Real Estate Association Germany IVD, the Main Association of the German Construction Industry and the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH). The alliance is said to have a total of 35 permanent members and a further twelve advisory members as experts from parliament and other institutions such as KfW and the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (Bima).
The committee will not have much time for deliberations. “A concrete package of measures should then be presented in autumn,” said Secretary of State for Construction Cansel Kiziltepe on Thursday at an event organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). “We want to slow down and reverse the further decline in the social housing stock.”
billion for housing
The traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP has set itself the goal of building 400,000 apartments per year, 100,000 of them affordable, publicly funded social housing. “It is important to join forces to achieve this goal,” says Geywitz’ letter of invitation to the alliance. During the budget deliberations in the Bundestag, she explained: “I am aware that this is a major effort for the federal government, but of course also for the states.” These apartments are needed, especially in metropolitan areas.
Formally, the federal states are responsible for the construction of social housing. The federal government pays money to the states for this. He wants to invest a total of 14.5 billion euros in social housing over the next five years. Two billion euros are planned for the current year, including a “climate billion” with which the climate-friendly new building and the energy-efficient renovation of social housing are to be promoted.
Read here: Climate-friendly construction: countries demand reliability
The letter of invitation also announces a preparatory meeting at state secretary level. The alliance’s “work structure and key issues” are to be discussed here.
Meanwhile, the Central Association of the German Construction Industry (ZDB) is calling for a round table on the effects of the Russian war on the construction industry in Germany. “Delivery bottlenecks and price jumps make a serious calculation increasingly impossible, construction delays and construction stops can hardly be avoided,” said ZDB General Manager Felix Pakleppa.
It is therefore important for the construction and transport ministries to act quickly and in concert together with Deutsche Bahn, the motorway company and the construction industry. The ZDB is invited to the “Alliance for Affordable Housing”.
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