News
- 19.08.2010
Land consumption, the critical issue of Legambiente
The association has presented, for the occasion, all the numbers on the situation of cement and land consumption in our country, but his proposals to respond to the problems of Italian cities and boost the construction sector, which crosses a the most serious crisis that has already left and remember in the last two years without working at least 200,000 people and led to the closure of 15 thousand builders.Appointment speakers, among others, Vittorio Cogliati Dezza, president of Legambiente, Anna Marson, Counsellor Regione Toscana, Roberto Della Seta, parent Pd Senate environment committee, Fabio Granata, president of the Chamber of Deputies Committee on Culture, Massimo Gilonite , ANCE, Federico Oliva, president INU, Edward Zanchini Legambiente responsible urban planning.
The crisis in the construction sector in Italy - has highlighted Legambiente - the destruction of the landscape created in recent years and the situation of housing problems that hundreds of thousands of families in difficulty to find a home at affordable prices, are the basis of the economic crisis we are experiencing. Why push the construction between 1995 and 2009, 4 million homes - more than 3 billion cubic meters of concrete - it was not the household demand, but speculation more sinister, so the price of homes remains inaccessible to those in need, beginning with the young, the elderly and immigrants.
There are two most important and dramatic phenomena produced by these years of urbanization. The first is from the suburbs of major urban areas, which are grown without any environmental and urban design, without services and without urban transport. And the question of discomfort is not just about access to housing, but more generally the quality of life in the suburbs, lack of efficient rail and underground and from which residents are forced to travel by car, without hopes that the situation the next best anni.Il second is the growth of second homes senseless on coastal areas and, in general, in the most beautiful and sensitive areas of the country.
"Over the last six months there have been eight attempts to pass a new amnesty - said Vittorio Cogliati Dezza - and maneuver under discussion in parliament is exchanged with the simplification deregulation exasperated. This demonstrates the inability of our leaders to think of a development model that values the true wealth of our country and its inadequacy to deal with housing issues and housing. In addition to worsening the quality of life of people, urban sprawl exposes them to new risks, because nothing is done on the security front hydrogeological and seismic.
If you want out of economic crisis, we must then put in place new ideas and policies for urban centers, and replace the model of development centered on the brick, featuring Italy, another more modern innovation and careful energy and technology, which has at its center, the recovery of the housing stock, without the use of soil and give response to housing demand.
"The ability to enhance the quality of the Italian territory is a key imperative to meet the challenges of globalization - said Edward Zanchini - and without a clear political and cultural awareness that economic development centered on the brick has come to a standstill, not leave a delicate and complicated situation like the one we are experiencing. To get hand should bear in mind the errors that generated. The first is to think that it is mainly a matter of procedure and the answer is more deregulation push. The second is to believe that housing and urban issues are to be resolved at local level, with tools and bargaining at the municipal level. Municipalities with which compensate for the financial statements with the infrastructure costs of building speculation, but still have no areas or to implement the money that we would need, unless you give other cubic meters of speculation.
In the dossier, Legambiente reconstructs the numbers of land consumption in Italy, which has devoured more than 21 thousand square kilometers and is an important issue of environment and landscape. Are eaten on average by cement 500 square kilometers each year about 3 times the area of the Municipality of Milan. But rather than absolute numbers (suffice to say that the presence of forest areas have increased between 1990 and 2010 by about 20%) processes are produced in different areas to think, not just a question of quantity but also quality of settlement choices. The main concerns are areas where, over the past 20 years, urbanization has radically changed the landscape, often with irreversible consequences. The biggest risk that Italy is running is that we realize that the landscape is its most valuable resource. And while in theory, ours is a country with ties to the world's most common landscape - includes 47% of the territory, demonstrating the quality and originality of our landscape - in practice these claims are without references and checks for Regions of delays in completing and updating plans and the inaction of the Ministry of Culture, to which is added the departments of Environment and Infrastructure regarding the hydrogeological, pollution of urban areas, housing .
For Legambiente is a ministry that deals of all policies relating to urban and housing. "In all major European countries, the United States as Russia, China and India there is a ministry that deals with the problems of cities and housing - said Zanchini -. We must restore powers to the state, rather expect that eventually carry essential tasks to address basic issues like the territorial government, environment and landscape, housing rights and access to essential services. Addresses that will be the regions to decline with applicable state and municipalities to introduce into their planning tools, but without which it is impossible to move any change. "
Another issue to address is the poor quality housing built in the last 15 years. We need a policy that retraining and raising the energy performance of existing building stock. As you look across Europe, in fact, how to innovate the industry, we continue to build ugly buildings and arrears from the technological point of view. On the positive side the success of a tool such as the deductions on building renovations (the "36%"), which led to some action on a 4 million and 100 thousand homes, but that concerns individual actions of individuals who a certain level of income, for example, has not moved anything in the South. And focus on innovation efficiency is a recipe that can not be postponed again, the new European directive on energy efficiency in buildings has determined that from 2021 all new public and private interventions consumption and emissions will have "near zero". This perspective must be carefully constructed to allow the construction sector to get prepared, which would mean that progressive improvement of sector skills and performance of buildings.
It should also leave the logic - that has produced untold damage in the area - that only by continuing to build houses we can answer the demand for housing. To provide an opportunity for students, young couples, immigrants and who today is suffering should aim at creating a wealth of public rental housing at affordable prices. In Italy, almost 80% of households live in their own homes: a level, among the highest in Europe, which is not a consequence of greater prosperity, but the lack of alternatives, that the market failures of rent both private and public. To change this we need a national policy that focuses on the theme of rental accommodation and a policy of financing and tax breaks. Are also news on the fiscal front, so as to reward innovation and create the conditions for which recovery becomes competitive with new buildings. In order to give municipalities the tools for effective management of existing buildings both public and private, and start interventions capable of responding to housing problems.
Source: Legambiente