16 September 2007

Council of Ministers: Housing Plan

Text:
The day before yesterday, before the Council of Ministers, there was the meeting of the ministers who are part of the Credit and Savings committee that controls the financial arrangements for credit and savings. From the technical reports presented, we have been able to observe that the so-called mortgage crisis that has hit America, due to a “junk” system in which money was around with a very high level of risk, has not caught on in Italy. Here, the “sub-prime” mortgages account for less than 1%. For now, it’s gone OK, but the next time it could be bad. That crisis is due to the fact that even in the united States, they didn’t respect the rules of the game, above all in relation to the conflict of interests. The rating companies, the ones that certify the credit ratings of others, at times were in fcat created by and definitely paid by those that they are controlling. Even in America they use Italian thinking.
Furthermore, they removed from the balance sheets the operations that were at risk: a crafty move to the detriment of the saving public.
In Italy we have discovered a detail that has not yet produced damages, but about which we need to prepare regulations: the so-called “estero-vestite” {foreign-clothed} companies. Certain banks and insurance companies that operate in italy, are Italian, are managing our money but however they have their registered office abroad. Result: if all goes well, they get their profits, but if things go badly, they have to respect the law of that country.
The Council of Ministers has discussed the so-called “Housing Plan”. I am the Minister of Infrastructure, but I am concerned not just with roads and railways. I also deal with the building of homes. The Housing Plan is the project that makes sure that, in each village, town and city there is housing available for those who don’t have the money to buy, nor to rent housing.
I have presented a plan that is in two phases: one that involves the need for finance and the other that needs no finance as it reuses the old structures of the defence establishments and the logistical services of the military with which it will be possible to make available 8,000 homes a year for the next 10 years.
There’s a diatribe between those who maintain that evictions should be postponed and those, like me, who believe that private property must be respected. It’s not possible to leave social needs to be charged to private citizens. But we all must take on the problems. Since there is the possibility to do so, the solution is to acquire a pool of public housing without having to steal it from anyone who has perhaps taken a lifetime to buy their own house. In the end, how much will the first house cost? Padoa Schioppa will decide that. I believe that, since some money was left over from the last Budget, not distributing money into the air, but investing in bricks and mortar is a good thing.”

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Information