Land consumption, Veneto record

Land consumption has no brakes in Veneto. Infrastructure, civil and industrial construction works are being built, but despite the consequences of climate change, investment in land protection remains residual. Managing the bureaucratic machine of contracts are mainly the municipalities, overburdened by the weight of decisions to be taken and often operating with reduced staff. This is the situation highlighted by the Report on Public Contracts referring to the second quarter of 2024, prepared by Ance Veneto.

"We are consuming more and more significant portions of land and giving municipalities the greatest weight in the choices despite the fact that they are increasingly short of resources and operate with reduced ranks," denounces the president of the regional builders, Alessandro Gerotto. The Centro studi Ance, he continues, "reveals that municipalities are managing more than 60 per cent of the tenders awarded. In some provinces, such as Verona and Vicenza, they prevail both in terms of the number of tenders called and the volume of amounts distributed. It also highlights that interventions to safeguard the territory represent just under 12 per cent of the total awarded for no more than EUR 30 million; that is, 13.5 per cent of the total tendered resources in the entire Veneto region'. This is not much considering what is happening in neighbouring Emilia-Romagna, "a region similar to ours, and in view of the regulatory efforts made by decision-makers, including at Veneto level, such as the Consolidated Text for the government of the territory. Builders are the first to want a healthy and sustainable territory, but there is a lack of vision and ability to decide,' he launches the lunge.

Here then are the numbers of the Report. Last year in Veneto, 1,026 hectares of new soil were consumed and 287 hectares restored. The balance is therefore 739 hectares cemented (Ispra data), which are added to those of previous years, for a total of 11.9% of the regional territory, well above the national average. Veneto is therefore confirmed in second place after Lombardy (908 hectares), followed by Puglia (718 hectares) and Emilia-Romagna (635 hectares). Also due to the demographic downturn, the soil consumed per capita increases to 449 square metres per inhabitant. In Verona, as in Padua, Treviso, Venice and Rovigo, public tenders in the second quarter of the year involved civil and industrial building works. Verona and Vicenza, finally, stand out for a particular concentration of tenders and especially of resources allocated to road works.

From April to the end of June, 2,349 tenders called by Veneto contracting stations for a total amount of EUR 237.4 million were registered in Anac (the anti-corruption authority). On the basis of the tenders registered, the resources allocated amount to 214.2 million euro (they are therefore lower than the 220.4 million euro of the first quarter); however, this is a provisional figure that may be 'corrected upwards' with subsequent updates. Compared to the period from January to the end of March, there has been a significant increase in the number of tenders, with awards below EUR 40,000 (almost two out of three tenders) for an amount of works awarded that is around 10% of the total. Considering instead the procedures above this threshold, Padua is in the lead (24%, at around 40 million), followed by Venice (17.8%; 34.2 million). It is followed by Verona (15.4%), Treviso and Vicenza (around 14%), Belluno (11.7%), and Rovigo (around 3%). More in detail, the Municipalities put out to tender 76.9 million euro and awarded 71.2 million with an average discount of 7.4%; the Utilities put out to tender works for 74 million and awarded 63.1 million (14.7% discount), the other entities put out to tender works for 60.9 million and awarded works for 55.5 million. Municipalities, as mentioned above, continue to take the lion's share in terms of tenders awarded; Utilities took care of 13.5% of the tenders, while the remaining share (25.7%) refers to the other local authorities, such as Provinces, Regions, mountain communities, etc. This distribution is significantly rebalanced if we reason on the basis of volumes, with a slight preponderance of resources for Municipalities and Utilities (between 35% and 36%), at 76 and 74 million, respectively, while the other local authorities account for approximately 29% of the tendered resources, i.e. 60.9 million.

Finally, the school building chapter. The incidence of the last period (8.8 per cent) seems to confirm the trend already recorded at the beginning of the year, which translates into a sharp drop in interventions, although in Padua (11.1 per cent), Vicenza (12 per cent) and especially Treviso (14 per cent) there is a propensity higher than the regional average. The boost generated by the availability of NRRP resources seems to be weakening and this, according to Ance, is partly due to the fact that the worksites financed by the plan must be closed by 2026, so that the tenders registered in the last period are the last ones that are among the works that can be financed and that can actually benefit from contributions.