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Again trouble about Habeck's funding stop for new construction - Lindner slows down colleagues

2022-01-29T05:30:17.269Z


Again trouble about Habeck's funding stop for new construction - Lindner slows down colleagues Created: 2022-01-29 06:21 By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi After the funding stop for energy-efficient houses and renovations, Finance Minister Lindner apparently wants a speedy new regulation. © Political Moments/www.imago-images.de There is probably disagreement in the traffic light coalition about stopping


Again trouble about Habeck's funding stop for new construction - Lindner slows down colleagues

Created: 2022-01-29 06:21

By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi

After the funding stop for energy-efficient houses and renovations, Finance Minister Lindner apparently wants a speedy new regulation.

© Political Moments/www.imago-images.de

There is probably disagreement in the traffic light coalition about stopping funding for energy-efficient houses.

Finance Minister Lindner called for a quick reorganization.

Munich - It was a severe shock for builders and property owners: The Ministry of Economic Affairs, headed by Robert Habeck (Greens), temporarily suspended the funding program for energy-efficient houses.

According to the ministry, there has been an “enormous flood of orders” in recent weeks and demand is exceeding resources.

According to this, the construction of efficiency houses and energy-related refurbishment should not be financially supported from now on.

Apparently not everyone in the traffic light coalition agrees with this move.

Headwind is now coming from Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP).

He has called for a new program to be launched quickly, which should, however, be consistent with the available financial resources.

Traffic light suspends funding for efficiency houses - Lindner wants new regulations with attention to "fiscal leeway"

The German government surprisingly announced on Monday

(January 24)

that the current support from the state KfW for energy-efficient buildings was stopped with immediate effect due to high demand and limited funds. However, the KfW subsidy program for the higher EH40 standard and energy-efficient renovation of buildings are also affected by the stop, which recently led to clear criticism from consumer advocates, among others.

After Habeck's controversial step, Finance Minister Lindner is now calling for a new program, according to his ministry, but at the same time he is pointing out the limited fiscal leeway.

Lindner "supports the goal of quickly launching a suitable successor program," said a ministry spokesman for the

Rheinische Post

.

However, the “incentive effect” of a future program must “be brought into line with the fiscal leeway, which is limited”.

Traffic light funding stop: Habeck wants to create planning security again - Bavaria's finance minister criticized

Economics Minister Habeck also promised a new regulation.

There has never been such a rush in KfW's 74-year history, Habeck said on Wednesday

(January 26)

.

However, they want to ensure planning security again “quickly” with a new regulation, announced Habeck.

He agrees to this.

"We are in close contact with the other affected departments of construction and finance to ensure clarity here quickly," a spokeswoman for the minister confirmed to the

Rheinische Post

.

Habeck is still criticized.

Bavaria's finance minister Albert Füracker (CSU), who sits on the KfW board of directors, also targeted the Greens politician.

In a letter to Habeck, he criticized the "publication of your company at short notice and without any prior warning to stop the KfW subsidy for energy-efficient buildings with immediate effect," reported the

Passauer Neue Presse

.

Füracker therefore wrote of a “considerable breach of trust” at the expense of KfW.

Traffic light coalition is working on new regulations for KfW funding - only loans instead of repayment grants

According to Spiegel

information, the traffic light coalition is now looking for a way forward in the dispute over the funding stop.

However, there is still no agreement on how to proceed.

Accordingly, Habeck presented an initial key issues paper, which is said to have been discussed in the coalition committee.

The applications for the weak standard Efficiency House 55, which are up to the KfW for a decision, should probably only be approved in cases of hardship, for example for builders in the flood areas or with disabilities, wrote the news magazine.

There can also be exceptions for social housing projects.

The rest of the applicants should only be offered loans, but not the attractive repayment bonus.

According to Spiegel

, there is dissent

among the coalition partners on the question of how funding should continue in the long term.

It is therefore disputed whether there should be state subsidies, especially as sought by Economics Minister Habeck, for the renovation of old buildings.

Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) told the magazine that it was important “that new construction continues to be funded”.

According to the coalition agreement of the Ampel parties, the plan is to build 400,000 new apartments per year, 100,000 of them in social housing.

Ampel wants a clear limit for KfW subsidies - Habeck's decision probably doesn't affect that many people after all

However, the coalition agreed that, in contrast to the previous government, a clear limit for the funding should be set in the future and that this should also be clearly communicated,

Der Spiegel

further reported. The government is also planning a completely new subsidy system. "I absolutely agree with Minister Habeck that the funding system needs to be revised," emphasized Geywitz. The life cycle of houses, building materials, climate-friendly energy generation - all of these are factors that should play a role in the overall funding.

In addition, the new building standard 55 will probably be mandatory in the future and will no longer be funded.

According to new figures, the 24,000 applicants are said to be fewer private builders than originally feared.

According to documents from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, there are only a good 4,000 private builders and the rest are companies and municipal property developers, as reported by

Spiegel

.

(bb with material from afp)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-01-29

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