Region-Government clash over home saving . Matteo Salvini , father of the decree, criticized the way in which the Urban Planning Commission of the Regional Council implemented the provision, not granting habitability to studio flats of 20 square meters and leaving the minimum surface area at 28 .
The choice not to fully implement the provisions of the decree on minimum habitability measures for studio flats, for Salvini, is «a strategic error that risks penalising Sardinian citizens and creating unjustified territorial disparities ».
The measure, the ministry stressed , "aims to provide a pragmatic response to the growing demand for flexible and accessible housing, especially in cities". It is therefore designed "for young workers, students and singles" .
The Region's response was not long in coming, through the Councillor for Local Authorities and Urban Planning Francesco Spanedda .
First of all, he explains, «the reduction of the minimum surface area from 28 to 20 square meters provided for by the national text applies only to habitability, not to the design of new housing or to the transformation of existing ones, interventions that continue to be regulated by the '75 decree still in force. Smaller housing legitimately built before that date are, by jurisprudence, to be considered habitable anyway. Therefore, there is no territorial disparity: the rule is clear and uniform».
Then he gets to the heart of the matter: « Living flexibility is not achieved by compressing living space , but by ensuring versatile environments, capable of adapting to different needs. Space is important, the Covid experience should have taught us that».
As for young people, students and singles, «they are penalised by the fragmentation of spaces , as well as by the lack of regulation of short-term rentals which does not protect either tenants or owners, increasing the cost of housing».
Even in cities, "houses must be dignified" and reducing surfaces "is a short-sighted response" . Turning to Sardinia and land consumption: "The real reduction is obtained by regenerating the existing building heritage, not by incentivizing speculative operations. Calling the extreme reduction of spaces valorization is a mystification. The right to housing is not protected by cutting the quality of life".
Finally, recalls the exponent of the Todde Council, «no trade or professional association has criticized this point of the regional bill, a sign that the issue is marginal compared to the real priorities».
Regional councilor of the Progressisti Francesco Agus also responded to Salvini: «There is no room for negotiation on this point. The rule on 20 square meters is an abomination conceived to create niche houses to rent at a high price in the center of Milan to out-of-towners or tourists against any health and hygiene regulations . If applied in Sardinia it can only translate into the transformation of hovels into tourist residences».
(Unioneonline/L)
