The Ministry of Construction is preparing for the full launch of a comprehensive program for the modernization of housing and communal services

In parallel with receiving increasing budget injections for the modernization of dilapidated utility networks, housing and communal services enterprises should more actively use their internal resources, the Ministry of Construction is convinced. To this end, as the head of the department, Irek Fayzullin, said yesterday at the Federation Council, it is planned to tighten control over the approval and implementation of investment programs of resource supply organizations – now only 10% of such enterprises have them. However, the current tariff policy does not contribute to the expansion of investment plans in the industry, so it is unlikely that it will be possible to solve the problem only by control measures.

The Ministry of Construction is preparing for the full launch of a comprehensive program for the modernization of housing and communal services, the head of the department, Irek Fayzullin, said on Wednesday at the “government hour” in the Federation Council. This program has been in effect since 2023 and provides for the allocation of subsidies to constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the amount of 500 million rubles. everyone to replace dilapidated utility networks. However, funding will open only if the region has its own modernization program and if at least 20% of extra-budgetary investments are attracted to it. In 2023, 30 billion rubles were allocated for these purposes, in 2024 – 42 billion rubles. From 2025, funding for the program should “reach full capacity” and grow to 150 billion rubles. in year. However, for this, all regions must approve their own plans – this has not yet happened, according to the minister. It was previously reported that 65 out of 89 Russian regions completed such work.

Irek Fayzullin noted that the program will be given “very serious attention” – “maybe even to the detriment of some other programs.” This determination, let us explain, is associated with the difficult situation in the industry: the degree of wear and tear of utility networks in the country on average is about 40%, and in some regions reaches 80%. At the same time, the rate of their renewal lags behind the rate of wear and tear, and the industry is chronically underfunded (the need for investment is estimated at 4 trillion rubles for the period until 2030).

In general, in 2023, more than 200 billion rubles were allocated from the federal budget for the modernization of housing and communal services through various support measures, including the “Infrastructure Menu”, as well as through state programs. In the face of a shortage of funds, according to Irek Fayzullin, it is necessary to more actively use the “internal resources of the industry” – now there are problems with this. Thus, according to him, only 10% of resource supply organizations (RSOs) have investment programs, while for the last four years there has been no positive dynamics in the implementation of existing programs – the annual level of their implementation is about 76%.

This situation is connected, in particular, with the lack of direct responsibility for the North Ossetia and the regions to approve investment programs – the Ministry of Economy and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) have previously drawn attention to the reluctance to do this and the low quality of execution where they are adopted. Against this background, the Ministry of Construction, according to the minister, has prepared proposals “to strengthen state control” over the development of investment programs and their implementation.

However, it is hardly possible to solve problems with investment programs only by strengthening control – this is due to the fact that many housing and communal services enterprises are unprofitable and are afraid to take on obligations that they risk not fulfilling (see Kommersant of February 6, 2023). Tariff policy also acts as a barrier: as Accounts Chamber auditor Natalya Trunova noted yesterday at a meeting in the Federation Council, now the maximum tariff growth index is determined for three years, but after a year the parameters change, which “creates a very difficult situation” for long-term investment plans. The FAS is trying to resolve this issue partly almost manually, by introducing regulatory agreements that provide for RNO’s obligations to implement an investment program in exchange for long-term tariffs. While such an opportunity is provided for electric power facilities, expansion of the mechanism to the areas of heat and water supply is now being discussed.

Evgenia Kryuchkova