From social housing to families: this is how the Italian Housing Plan works

From the stage of the Rimini Meeting, Giorgia Meloni relaunched one of the most delicate and awaited dossiers of the legislature: the Housing Plan. An ambitious project, which in the intentions of the executive will have to deal structurally with the issue of housing hardship, relaunch social housing, and give a concrete response to young people, families, and fragile segments of the population. "One of the priorities that we will tackle with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is that of a large housing plan with lowered prices for young couples, because without a house it is difficult to build a family," said the premier in her lengthy speech from the stage in Rimini. "We must intervene on the median part of the population", between "30 and 60 thousand euro", reviewing "also the criteria with which we help those who need it most. Because the Isee calculation does not correspond to the real value of that family,' relaunched Vice-Premier Salvini, who has been handling the dossier at the Ministry of Infrastructure for months, interspersed with periodic meetings with stakeholders. But for the president of the European Parliament's Housing Commission Irene Tinagli, 'the government's problem is that in addition to the impressive announcements, it is not taking care of the housing emergency,' she attacks. For more than two years now, statements have been coming from Meloni and Salvini, meetings of tables have been going round in circles, but nothing concrete has been done,

The road to the House Plan is still long. And uphill. Minister Salvini has been working on it for a little less than two years and the last meeting in chronological order dates back to 17 June when the main associations in the sector were convened in the Parlamentino di Porta Pia, as is customary. On that occasion, the minister illustrated the available resources: 660 million euro against the 15 billion accounted for by the Ance builders. A scissor that is anything but easy to fill. In detail: 100 million with the 2024 Budget Law (50 in 2027 and 50 in 2028) and another 560 million in the latest manoeuvre, spread between 2028 and 2030 (150 million in 2028, 180 in 2029, 230 in 2030). But to complete the regulatory framework of the Home Plan, a Dpcm contained in the old Budget manoeuvre is missing, which should have been issued by 30 June 2024, thus fixing the contents of the Plan.

While waiting for the Plan to walk on more solid regulatory legs, Porta Pia presented stakeholders with a general framework of interventions. Among the strategic lines: the reorganisation of the social housing system and the Aziende casa; the use of innovative financing models, based on public-private partnerships; the creation of flexible housing solutions, integrated in the city and capable of combining social and residential housing; the involvement of the Third Sector in the management of social needs. The new housing companies will have to be more autonomous in their management and more attractive to investors. Central, moreover, will be the monitoring of housing deprivation, with a map of needs differentiated by severity and causes, to be integrated with regional and local strategies.

In the slides shown at the table, Salvini highlighted the crucial issue of funding sources. In addition to national resources, the focus is on European funds such as InvestEu, EIB loans, the creation of a revolving fund for sustainable housing, and a new fund at the MIT which, with the go-ahead from the MEF, should take up residual Italian and European resources, including unused Pnrr funds. These will be flanked by the involvement of real estate funds, foundations and pension funds. The model is suggested by the Ance builders, who count 15 billion euro recoverable, they say, through different sources of funding: 1.5 billion from the reprogramming of the Pnrr, 2.5 billion from the reprogramming of the 2020-2027 structural funds, 6 billion from the new EU budget, 3 billion from the 2027-2033 Social Climate Fund, and finally 2 billion from the 2027-2033 Infrastructure Investment and Development Fund, which today can count on 18.5 billion euro.

The Italian housing plan, however, is moving in a fast-moving European context. In Brussels, EIB vice-president Ioannis Tsakiris announced a EUR 10 billion plan for the two-year period 2025-2026, while the EU Parliament's housing commission is working on a EUR 15 billion package as part of the review of cohesion policies. Resources tied to precise conditionalities, to support 'affordable housing' and regulate residential markets under pressure, starting with that of tourist rentals. Spain and Belgium are the pilot countries: they have already initiated regulatory interventions to restore balance in a sector that is still out of control in many European cities.