HOUSING PLAN, ORSINI: IT'S AN URGENCY, LET'S TEAM UP
Confindustria's 6-point plan
 
Rome, 18 November 2024 - Confindustria presented a major economic policy plan to revive the country's development and overcome, on the one hand, the mismatch between labour supply and demand and, on the other, the 'mobility trap' that prevents the structural unemployment suffocating our economy.
 
A plan that aims to involve public and private entities to put in place the necessary tools to activate patient capital, remove urban planning and administrative obstacles to the construction and redevelopment of new buildings, and introduce specific tax measures. In order to achieve this, Confindustria is calling for an enlarged round table that brings together businesses, the government, Anci, the Conference of the Regions, the Agenzia del Demanio, as well as Cdp, Invimit, and the public investee companies that own buildings and usable areas. The starting point is the strong misalignment, in many areas of the territory, between the cost of renting or buying housing and the level of labour productivity and therefore of average wages. This is a brake on territorial mobility, which, on the other hand, is a fundamental process for facilitating the matching of labour supply and demand.
 
"Our companies have been experiencing a record shortage of personnel for some time now, almost 50% of the profiles sought are hard to find," emphasises the president of Confindustria Emanuele Orsini. "We have a huge problem of workers that we cannot employ because there is a lack of housing at rents compatible with salaries. It is therefore a priority to create the conditions for the most fragile classes in our society to have access to quality housing at an affordable price. This is not only a social measure, but also and above all a major economic policy plan to accelerate the country's development. Hence our project. It is an essential plan to guarantee territorial mobility and labour inclusion'.
 
"Now we need to work as a team. For this reason, Confindustria has indicated the need to envisage - already in the Budget Manoeuvre under discussion - guarantee measures, both for access to credit, also through SACE, and to encourage the investment of savers in initiatives aimed at providing housing for workers at a sustainable rent,' reiterates the Confindustria vice president for Credit, Finance and Taxation Angelo Camilli. "Our attention is also focused on the 'European Plan for Affordable Housing', announced by the European Commission, which, thanks to the creation of a financing platform at the EIB and the doubling of cohesion funds earmarked for housing, is decisive in giving a strong acceleration to the Confindustria Plan. Equally important will be tax measures that aim to encourage investment in the Plan's initiatives and their implementation'.
 
"The Confindustria Plan is of extraordinary importance for the competitiveness of the Italian production system. For it to work,' he emphasises Gabriele Buia, Confindustria's delegate for the Piano Casa (House Plan) - urban planning simplifications are essential in order to quickly implement initiatives that benefit workers and their families. An effective way to implement it in all national territories, favouring the realisation of even small- to medium-sized initiatives, is to carry out real estate securitisation operations, also promoted by industrial companies, construction companies and SGRs, which intend to meet the housing needs of their workers and families - and which involve not only institutional investors, but also savers.This would be possible thanks to the state guarantee proposed by Confindustria, which would be used exclusively for social housing and student housing operations".
 
The Confindustria Plan is divided into six points: 1) identifying and removing the urban planning and administrative obstacles that hinder the construction and redevelopment of new buildings (including special flexible procedures for urban planning variants and changes of use and the reduction of urbanisation charges); 2) stimulating public entities to make available available areas in urbanised areas, both vacant and unused properties; 3) introducing guarantee instruments to encourage investments by real estate developers, construction companies, real estate funds, savers 4) attracting the resources of institutional investors, such as pension funds, social security funds, banks, etc., capitalising on the experience of Invimit and Cdp Real Asset Sgr; 5) introducing specific tax measures (including IMU reductions for companies that build housing for workers, full tax relief on returns for savers and investors) in addition to the tax relief on sums paid by employers to employees, already provided for in the Budget Bill and which can be further strengthened by extending it to seasonal workers; 6) strengthening measures to protect private property.