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In 15 minutes appealed to an outraged reader.
“Vilnius, with a population of 600,000, thousands of old apartment buildings, and a much higher income, can only renovate a few dozen houses a year. Small Lithuanian cities such as Palanga, Šilutė, Jonava, Plungė, with tens of thousands of Inhabitants and only dozens of old apartment buildings can also renovate dozens of houses a year. Some smaller cities are already finishing renovating most of their old houses. Meanwhile, Vilnius and other large cities continue to benefit from outdoor heating. And this is the trend from the beginning of the renovation, “he said 15 minutes reader and called the current situation abnormal.
In fact, the rate of renewal appears to have slowed significantly. The incoming government has promised in its program implementation plan: “Implementation of at least 500 multi-apartment home renovation (modernization) projects per year.”
Sigismund Gedvila / 15min photo / Apartment building on S.Konarskio street in Vilnius
However, since 2016, when a record rate of renovation was reached and 768 projects were completed, the results have deteriorated significantly since then: 403 projects were completed a year later, in 2018. This number fell to 224,269 buildings. apartments were renovated last year, and this year before July 3. 118 projects were completed, according to data from the Public Housing Energy Savings Agency (BETA).
“Regarding last year’s renovation, it is important to note that all low-energy apartment buildings have been renovated in Ignalina, Druskininkai, Kelmė, Jonava, Anykščiai, Molėtai, etc. most of the old apartment buildings have been renovated, “says BETA.
Vilnius really seems like a stranger: only 5 projects have been completed this year, more buildings have been renovated in Ignalina, Pakruojis, Palanga and other cities. Last year, 15 apartment buildings were modernized in Vilnius, while in Zarasai – 17.
The capital’s conservative deputy mayor Valdas Benkunskas admits that, based on the current situation, only every 10th apartment building will be fixed.
V. Benkunskas: unattractive bureaucracy for people
The capital currently has some 250 signed contracts, the highest number among any city. Why is renewal stagnating?
“In the 15 years since the start of EU support for the renovation of apartment buildings, the conditions and intensity of support have changed several times, and here, apparently, there is the same bureaucratic evil that people find unattractive and terrifying. ” After all, the benefits of why those houses need to be renovated are not explained. Many of the initial ideas, when they start thinking about renovating an apartment building, fail at the initial stage, when it is necessary for the apartment building meeting, the apartment owners, to make the decision to go renovate. ” says V. Benkunskas.
Photo by Lukas Balandis / 15min / Valdas Benkunskas
He estimates that people are deterred by possibly too little state support, too long bureaucratic obstacles, obligations, bank loans. When asked about the role of the municipality in this process, he criticized state policy that in the past support for renovation of apartment buildings was distributed according to quotas.
“Absolutely no matter the population, no matter how many houses there are, what is the value of the renovation. 30 multiple apartment houses are given in Vilnius per year, and 10 for Kelme or Kazlų Rūda – 10. This does not fit in any proportion. Over time, a more intensive renovation of the city’s apartment buildings could have been carried out, but in this case it was state policy to distribute the quotas according to the cities and regions, regardless of other objective criteria, “said V Benkunskas.
He claims that the municipality sent signals to the government 4 years ago and even had the intention of going to court “because the quotas could not be justified in any way based on objective criteria.”
“If in Vilnius, where there are more than 8,000 apartment buildings, the same or similar quantity occurs as in another municipality, where there are 100 apartment buildings, then those proportions are not maintained. (…) There were really houses that were ready for technical designs and decisions were made, they simply were not given that quota. Today, the situation, of course, has changed a bit, because the attractiveness of the renovation is reduced, the intensity of the support is reduced, so in this case in the municipality, we ourselves, from the city budget, are trying to find those bonds, which would help people make the decision to renew, “says V. Benkunskas.
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