Credit: MLOG
On Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 March 2022, Luxembourg's Minister of Housing, Henri Kox, tookpart in the conference of European Ministers of Housing and Construction in Nice, France.
The ministerial exchanges focused mainly on the efforts undertaken by European Union (EU) Member States to reconcile affordable housing and quality of life, and this in particular, in the face of the increase in the cost of raw materials and the necessary wave of major renovations to be carried out to make housing resilient to climate change.
During his speeches, Minister Kox placed particular emphasis on the efforts that the public authorities must undertake at the regulatory, budgetary and tax levels. In the field of renovations, Minister Kox expressed his support for "in-depth renovation" which should be the privileged opportunity to tackle in a concerted way and aspects such as the living conditions of vulnerable households, the increase in resilience climate change, fire safety, disposal of hazardous substances, including asbestos, and accessibility for people with disabilities. He said: “We know that 80% of the homes of tomorrow are already built today. But they have to go through deep energy renovations”.
Another major topic of the conference was access to affordable housing. Minister Kox discussed the context of European regulations on State aid which mean that countries wishing to increase their investments in this area must define precisely and restrictively the service of general economic interest of affordable housing. Minister Kox said: “We must support as many of the possible solutions submitted to us by our citizens. Support for these initiatives must not be prevented by overly strict rules aimed at protecting a competitive market which does not contribute anything to the solution".
