Housing: Leo opens the door to a 65 per cent eco-bonus for external insulation and solar panels

Negotiations with Brussels are ongoing and concern, on the one hand, ‘which measures can be funded’ using the additional deficit already authorised. “Today we have this principle, which has been approved by the EU – the 14 billion for energy – and we need to see what measures will be taken; this is the negotiation that is currently taking place,” said Leo. As for defence, however, “we will see” how many resources to allocate.

Leo has also outlined a proposal to adopt different measures for improving energy efficiency between the public and private sectors. In the private sector, “let’s try to raise the bar beyond 50 per cent”, for example for thermal insulation or solar panels, he suggests.

In the public sector, “one might consider efficiency improvements in healthcare facilities and educational establishments”.

The memory of the 110 per cent scheme is still fresh, as the entire current government majority viewed it as a burden on the public finances for the policies of the entire parliamentary term. “We cannot set fixed percentages,” said Leo, “we must avoid repeating those pathological situations that arose in the past with the superbonus.”

“We’ve been a bit burned by the tax credit scheme. The cost to us of the superbonus” for next year “is 23 billion – just think of all the things we could have done!”, the Deputy Minister emphasised.

“In all honesty, I must tell you that this will be a difficult Budget Bill. Because of inflation, because of the need to keep public finances in order, and because of the public debt when we issue government bonds,” Leo emphasised.

“Have you seen the spread? We’ve kept it under control all along, but due to the rise in energy prices, it’s now approaching 100. We hope the European Union understands this situation and will meet us halfway, giving us more flexibility, which will give us a bit more breathing space to carry out more targeted measures.”

Moving on to the broader scope of the budget, Leo reiterated that one of its priorities is to raise the threshold for the second IRPEF tax bracket from 50,000 to 60,000 euros.

‘We already helped part of the middle class last year because, for incomes between 28,000 and 50,000 euros, we reduced the tax rate to 33 per cent instead of 35 per cent. ‘We are planning to do another part of this now,’ the Deputy Minister also told Confartigianato, ‘through the Budget Bill, to cover taxpayers with incomes between 50,000 and 60,000 euros’ which would be reduced from the IRPEF rate of 43 per cent to 33 per cent.