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Home arrow Holyrood news arrow News categories arrow Housing, Planning & Regeneration (HCL01) arrow MEPs call on states to use funds for housing
MEPs call on states to use funds for housing Print E-mail
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Tuesday, 20 March 2007

The European Parliament has urged older member states to make use of European cash to help fund accessible and affordable housing.

An own-initiative report adopted by the Regional Development Committee stresses that a lack of decent, affordable housing directly affects EU citizens, by restricting their education, training and job options.

The report, by Italian MEP Alfonso Andria, highlights the fact that the European Regional Development Fund regulation for 2007-2013 would allow structural aid for housing in urban development projects in areas of the new member states that are threatened by physical deterioration or social exclusion.

For the fifteen countries that were in the EU before 2004, the report seeks to reopen debate on "extending access to Community funds for renovation of social housing to all Member States, in order to save energy and protect the environment, currently foreseen only for certain countries, given that housing needs are critical throughout Europe".

Structural fund aid should form part of an integrated strategy for boosting housing accessibility and improving quality of life in urban environments, said the report, so as to give the biggest possible boost to jobs and growth.

Four out of five Europeans live in urban areas. Many European cities face soaring housing purchase and maintenance costs. Yet at the same time, notes the report, urban sprawl is adding to mobility problems, energy consumption, and pollution. EU funding could help to revive urban areas, the committee said, with a mix of measures to redevelop public areas, improve safety and prevent delinquency, use water and energy more efficiently, and renovate infrastructure.

Among other points, the report advocates identifying EU-wide minimum quality standards defining "decent housing", strengthening the right to housing benefit so as to ease worker mobility, giving cities a greater role in planning and managing the use of structural funds for housing projects.

The report, adopted in committee with 45 votes in favour, three against and one abstention, will be put to the vote of the whole Parliament at the Brussels plenary session on 9-10 May.
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