The full text of the letter is as follows:
To the Minister of Environment and Energy Mr. Kostas Skrekas
Inside Athens, 21.11.2021
SUBJECT: Immediate need the upgrading of rented and vacant houses through “SAVE”!
Dear Minister,
In view of the activation of the “EXOIKONOMO” housing upgrade subsidy program based on the new selection criteria for the beneficiaries, we consider it absolutely necessary to return to the issue we brought to your attention both in our letter of 20.5.2021 and recently:
The EU has made it an absolute priority to deal with the dangerously growing social phenomenon of “Fuel Poverty”, whose victim is Europe’s poorest households. This is because “energy poverty” is the first and surest indication of the real “poverty” of households, when they are unable to heat themselves in the winter…
Today Minister, the poorest households are none other than those housed in the old rental houses of the most degraded areas of the country! These households get colder than others in the winter, and get hotter in the summer. And unfortunately, in these houses without any insulation, the cost of heating is unbearable, which is why their residents are the first and permanent victims of “energy poverty”.
The houses where these households live belong to owners who are in a similar or even worse economic and social situation to their tenants, with very low rents, and who today, due to ENFIA, have no possibility of self-financing the energy upgrade of these homes, without which they are threatened with their complete obsolescence!
And yet, Mr. Minister, in the “SAVING” which starts in a few days, the subsidy of upgrade of these rental homes is limited to 40% instead of the usual rate of 75%, so basically not a single home will be upgraded in the entire country! However, the result will ultimately be that not their owners are “punished”, but their tenants!
That is why we call on you, Minister, to intervene immediately and restore this blatant injustice which is ultimately directed against the most vulnerable households in the country, equalizing the upgrade subsidy for rental homes at 75%, based on the income criteria of the tenants who are currently entitled to the heating allowance.
Because in practice the most suitable time for carrying out upgrading works on the houses is when they are empty, we propose to subsidize the upgrading of empty houses when their occupants have left, after the owners – beneficiaries are obliged of the subsidy to declare responsibly that after the works, they will be used again for a permanent residence, and not for any other use.
Mr. Minister, the fair equation of subsidy to “SAVE” will be an important incentive for upgrading the rental, but also the vacant building potential of the country, which will increase the supply of housing, something that our society absolutely and immediately needs!
At your disposal for any clarification and cooperation!
With special regards
The President The Vice President The Secretary General Stratos I. Paradias Charalambos Tsoutrelis Tasos G. Vappas text-align: justify?”> Lawyer A.P.- President UIPI Om. NTUA Professor Lawyer A.P.
