Rustam Minnikhanov at the collegium of Russian Ministry of Construction: One of the most complicated issues in the state and development of housing and utilities sector. This sector is related to every resident

On 20 April the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, who came on a working visit to Moscow, took part in a joint meeting of the Collegium of the Russian Ministry of Construction and the Presidium of the Governmental Commission on regional development of Russia.

After the introductory speeches of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who is also the Chairman of the Governmental Commission on regional development, and the Aid to Russian President Igor Levitin, Russian Minister of Construction and Housing Utilities Sector Irek Fayzullin gave his keynote report on main indicators of the sphere in 2022.

In his turn, Rustam Minnikhanov as the Head of the Russian State Council Commission on Construction, Housing Utilities Sector and the City Environment reported that the republic maintained the record commissioning of housing in 2022, which was more than 3m square meters. He said that the advanced financing gives an additional impetus to housing construction and will make it possible to commission additionally more than 10m square meters by 2030 in Kazan agglomeration only. “Life quality of our residents is improving due to the infrastructural menu tools, national projects and programmes of public utility infrastructure systems modernization, including 44 regional programmes. As the result more than 4 thousand social and communal facilities were built and overhauled in Tatarstan last year. This year we must keep the same pace according to the errand from Russian President Vladimir Putin,” he said.

Having mentioned the dropping demand in the housing market, he listed several proposals of recovery measures such as improved conditions for family mortgage, the programme of supporting developers by subsidizing the loan rate up to 4 per cent and 2 per cent for new Russian regions. “However only those developers the price of square meter of which does not exceed the construction cost fixed by the Russian Ministry of Construction for a given region are eligible for such privileges,” Rustam Minnikhanov said.

He also reminded that the amount of housing construction should be synchronized with the development of social infrastructure. “Here we ask to consider the possibility of increasing financing of construction of social and infrastructural facilities from the federal budget, taking into consideration that change of the regulatory requirements influenced  the rise in prices  of the social infrastructure ,” the Rais of Tatarstan said.

“One of the most complicated issues is the state and development of housing and utilities system sector. This sphere is related to every resident,” he said and reminded about the large scale two-year programme of communal infrastructure modernization launched following the decisions of the Presidium of the Russian State Council.

Rustam Minnikhanov also spoke about housing management and the need to step up requirements to the management companies licensing, about prevention of gas explosions in living houses and quality of capital overhaul of multi-apartment houses.

He also informed that collection of utility payments in Tatarstan exceeds 99 per cent mostly due to the establishment of the United Payments Center in 2018. “All large managing companies and utility providers have signed agreements with the center. We are ready to share our experience. We propose that all managing and utility companies compulsory accrue and charge payments through the one payment center which will unify the accrues and make them transparent”, Rustam Minnikhanov concluded.