Producers call for a maxi regeneration of urban suburbs

A Marshall Plan for the building industry, with a maxi urban regeneration plan for the suburbs concentrated on (non-historical) buildings constructed in the years when no anti-seismic and energy efficiency criteria were adopted. For the manufacturers of the Confindustria Ceramica brick grouping, this would be a turning point. Not only to give new impetus to the domestic market, which for some years now has been characterised by a contraction in demand. But also to help redesign large parts of cities, upgrading them with the most advanced technologies and techniques.

"Tearing down a building and then rebuilding it is a very impactful intervention, but we have studies that show how in a few years the investment can be recouped with just the energy savings obtained," says Luigi Di Carlantonio, vice president of Confindustria Ceramica. An example of a new building policy comes from the USA, where the useful life of each building is declared at the time of its construction. "We are in the realm of the possible," Di Carlantonio continues, "We are talking about houses built half a century ago that have walls eight centimetres thick, often without garages and lacking the technologies that today make it possible to drastically reduce energy consumption. Ours is a concrete proposal to rebuild obsolete suburbs". An ambitious project for an industrial system made up of 59 companies - for a total of 77 production plants - employing 3 thousand workers and reaching a turnover of 650 million in 2023. For the sector's industrialists, very little effect will be generated by the Salva Casa (Save House) decree, with the amnesty for minor building abuses, to free homes from the shackles of very rigid regulations. While there is great expectation for the 2025 housing plan, including housing for workers at reduced rents, social housing, and the recovery and redevelopment of the real estate heritage, with an allocation of 100 million euro that will in any case have to be confirmed by the government with the next Financial Law.

"We are in the front row, in complete agreement, for everything that can be done in the area of social housing," adds Di Carlantonio, "even if the 100 million euro foreseen for now is a modest endowment: in fact we are talking about a flagship. For now, the brick sector is reckoning with the 2023 downturn: a 14.1 per cent drop in production, due above all, as Roberto Danesi, president of Fornaci Laterizi Danesi, explains, "to a marked downturn in structural materials that have not benefited from the superbonus and that are linked to new construction rather than renovation. Once again, according to Danesi, 'the incentives did not target urban regeneration'. Despite the slight recovery in production seen in the first months of this year, many things are still wrong. "With the exhaustion of the superbonus, in particular the sismabonus for the reconstruction of earthquake-proof buildings, the cancellation of the discount on the invoice and the transfer of credit, in addition to inflation driven by the rise in energy costs and the consequent increase in rates," observes Vincenzo Briziarelli, president of Fbm (Fornaci Briziarelli Marsciano), "we can only expect a progressive two-figure reduction in the building market, both in terms of redevelopment and new residential construction.

Hence, in view of important deadlines such as the one on the green house set by the EU, the urging of manufacturers, for whom medium and long-term plans are needed rather than transitional and extemporary measures. In fact, they are asking the government to agree with the brick sector on an organic project to implement the EU directive. "A project," Briziarelli points out, "to make Italy's real estate assets safe and allow the construction of new residential buildings with earthquake-resistant construction systems that guarantee improved energy efficiency.

The real risk, if no action is taken, would be to return to past levels, further squeezing the companies' room for growth. In order to reverse the downward trend in production - last year it stood at 3.96 million tonnes against more than 4.6 in 2022 - the lever to be used by producers remains that of a system of clear, structured and long-term tax incentives. The aim is also to build homes that also guarantee healthiness, wellbeing, space accessibility, fire protection and seismic safety. "Aspects," says Danesi, "that are amply guaranteed by brick building solutions, which are notoriously natural and long-lasting, and whose energy and earthquake-proof performance has been vastly improved in recent years, qualifying brick as a high quality multi-performance material.