“Rethinking construction incentives”. Confartigianato’s proposal

On February 9, the go-ahead from the Industry, Research and Energy Commission of the European Parliament arrived proposal to revise the EU directive on “green houses”, a measure advanced by the European Commission to improve the energy performance of residential buildings included in the “Fit for 55” reform package. The approved text establishes the achievement of class E by 2030, D by 2033 and zero emissions by 2050. Buildings of artistic, historic and cult value, second homes and those with a surface area of ​​less than 50 sq m will be excluded. square meters. The next step will be the vote of the plenary assembly in March and from that moment the negotiations between Parliament, the Commission and the Council will start to arrive at the final approval.

According to Confartigianato, the EU directive can represent an opportunity to significantly activate the real estate revaluation and redevelopment and to push the construction sector. But under specific conditions. “Europe – observes Marco Granelli, president of Confartigianato – must allow us to deal sustainable paths to the individual states which have the task of adopting the most effective national measures to achieve the objective of zero emissions. In practice, public investments are essential to achieve the provisions of the directive and, consequently, the dedicated resources must be able to be considered outside the budgetary constraints and, hopefully, should be part of a real European green recovery plan”. In Italy, the data taken from requests for the issue of energy performance certificates show that as many as three quarters of residential homes are in the three worst classes E, F and G, i.e. those with the highest consumption and lowest efficiency. Our country can boast an excellent wealth of SMEs operating in the home sector and a system of green incentives which has proven to be highly effective also from the point of view of the effects on the economy. In 2021, spending on the renovation of residential buildings amounted to 75.1 billion, of which 62.8 per cent for redevelopment linked to incentives.

According to Confartigianato, thanks to the boost of building bonuses, between 2019 and 2022 as many as 2.1 points of GDP growth come from the greater investments in construction in Italy compared to the rest of the Eurozone. Construction has also offset the recessionary effects of the pandemic on the labor market: between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2022, the construction sector recorded an increase of 257,000 employees, compared with the growth of 19,000 workers in manufacturing and the decrease of 160,000 employed in services and 47,000 employed in agriculture. But you can do more and better. It is again Confartigianato to point out that, unfortunately, the road to building bonuses, from May 2020 to November 2022, was dotted with continuous regulatory stop and go: 224 changes, one every 16 days. And so citizens and entrepreneurs found themselves trapped in a veritable bureaucratic web. “We have undergone a trickle of regulatory changes – underlines Granelli – which has greatly complicated the activity of businesses and the projects of families interested in carrying out energy requalification interventions on homes. An experience that culminated in the blocking of credits in the tax drawers of entrepreneurs and the uncertainty about the fate of the incentives. This is not the best way to encourage the green transition”.

The president of Confartigianato supports the need for “profoundly rethink the incentive system in the construction sector. They must not only burden the bills of households and businesses and, even less, generate speculative bubbles. Enough with the spot interventions subjected to constant second thoughts. The energy efficiency of real estate can be a great opportunity for the country, but it must not become a nuisance for citizens and businesses. The really effective way is to plan a real long-term structural strategy that marks the use of additional public resources. In this way we will be able to obtain a positive return in terms of GDP growth and guide citizens’ choices on the quality and energy efficiency of homes”.