The European Affordable Housing Cosortium taking on a special role at the Alliance of Italian Cooperatives

24-02-2023

On the 21st of March, LegacoopAbitanti will be participating in the Joint Commitee of the Alliance of Cooperatives – housing sector. The committee will focus on the main topics that concern the cooperative housing sector, which is now facing numerous challenges, among them the affordability and sustainability of the cooperative housing movement. Legacoop Abitanti would like to give an overview from a European perspective, starting with Affordable Housing Initiative and the Shape -EU project, which recently has been working on the “Blueprints”, generally presenting them as guidelines that not only provide ready-to-go info but also give a complete overview on the EU framework. The importance to transfer from a European to a local level of the Renovation Wave spirit is a crucial issue, in order to allow a Just and innovative transition, embracing technology, environmental and social issues.

In Italy, since 2007 a policy based on tax credits of 50-65% has been put in place aiming at reducing emissions by increasing energy efficiency in private and public buildings. The same subsidy mechanism has been developed for seismic retrofitting. In 2020, this set of measures has been extended, leading to the so-called Superbonus: it provides a tax credit up to 110% of expenses aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of public, cooperative, and private residential buildings. Furthermore, the regulatory framework allowed to assign the Tax claim to banks and financial institutes.

At the moment, a recent law has reduced the possibility to use the sa called Superbonus, since the tax claim will no more be allowed and the percentage of the deduction will be heavily reduced until 2025. Even if Superbonus has proved to be a regressive measure, with accentuated economic, territorial, and cultural disparities in the enjoyment due to several reasons, the possibility of tax claims to banks allowed the most fragile people to access the mechanism. Furthermore, the current system has focused on the “micro-interventions” of renovation limited to the building than to the urban scale, devoting less attention to seismic adjustment (more complex and expensive, especially in inhabited buildings). The result is summarized by excellent renovated buildings in degraded neighborhoods, where the urban spaces are not present or are insufficient (e.g.: cycle-pedestrian paths, green mobility, nature-based solutions).

Legacoop Abitanti, as a member of the Alliance of the Cooperatives, has presented a document during a hearing held with the Government which contains proposals for a comprehensive and structural revision of the tax regulamentation concerning energy renovation and urban regeneration, considering the recent revision of the EPBD and in general the EU policy framework undergoing. Basically, the main request is to provide stability to the mechanism, as the current deadline (31/12/2024) and continuous extensions are obstacles to the planning and implementation of complex urban regeneration interventions that require longer design and execution times. As an association, Legacoop Abitanti would take the occasion to spread the European perspective, to reinforce the need for a stronger effort to be put in place to achieve the scope of the Renovation Wave.