The window, façade and solar protection employers' association assures that it has been more than two years since the publications of the European aid programs for housing rehabilitation began to be announced, warning about the slowness of public administrations in the fund management.
Now, they are already talking about "collapse" in a procedure that they describe as very cumbersome and that they denounce is greatly prolonging the arrival of aid. "The call came out in May 2022 and we are going to be unemployed for two years and not a single euro has been paid," explains Pablo Martín, president of the Spanish Association of Manufacturers of Light Facades and Windows (ASEFAVE).
The Valencian Administration does not deny his reason. "The Government's Royal Decree has its high complexity, but indeed the calls for 2022 and 2023 left much to be desired from the point of view of simplification, bureaucracy, and management," confirms Sebastián Fernández, regional secretary of Housing. .
The General Directorate of Housing assures that it encountered a "very worrying" situation in September 2023, so much so that it could be considered a "traffic jam." As confirmed to this medium, in the 2023 call for energy rehabilitation of homes and buildings, aid had only been requested for the line of windows of just 2,549,008.77 euros out of an endowment of 6,000,000 euros, which meant that they were barely enough. 42%. In addition, they assure that the payments for the 2022 call were "paralyzed", since only 842.33 euros had been paid out of a total of 30,998,761.94 euros granted.
Given the situation, the Ministry led by Vice President Susana Camarero explains that she managed to close 2023 with several milestones. On the one hand, with a level of aid requested in total of almost triple the available amount, 169,630,578.70 euros compared to an amount of 62,363,567 euros, which translates into more than 3,700 files related to actions in more than 13,075 homes spread throughout the Valencian Community that are being evaluated by the management teams.
And in an "acceleration" in payments for the 2022 call, going from 842.33 euros paid in August 2023 to more than 395,132.26 euros at the end of the year. However, they warn that with the annual budget closing, they are waiting for its opening to continue with the path of acceleration of payments that has been achieved.
For his part, Pablo Martín explains that the delay in the program has caused "a lot of distrust" among clients. The clients did not request the aid directly, but did so through a rehabilitation manager or agent, one of the novelties of the 2023 call. The 2023 call was endowed with more than 18 million euros and the concession is governed in order of entry. The deadline was activated in June and closed on December 28.
Meanwhile, in 2022 there were 2,167 applications, 5,880 homes to be rehabilitated in a program endowed with four million in housing aid and another 70 million euros for building aid, according to the official balance sheet. However, ASEFAVE insists that the aid has practically not arrived yet. "There is a lack of transparency, it is impossible to have information about what has happened to the files," laments Martín. The manufacturers' association regrets the delay and transfers responsibility to the administration when complaints come from customers, who "ask for explanations from angry associates even because they believe they have been scammed," explains Martín.
According to the call launched by the formerly called Department of Housing and Bioclimatic Architecture, then in the hands of Podem, the procedure was as follows: first the manager submitted the aid request electronically and, if accepted, he had to receive an advance payment of 30%. of the total aid. The manager had to prepare a report during the work and then present all the documentation for verification. "An exhausting procedure," explains Martín.
In the 2024 call, the Valencian government will try to have a significant endowment - yet to be determined - that brings together the funds not used in different aid lines by the previous Government and with the new endowments that are transferred to the Generalitat Valenciana. They will also seek the simplification of administrative procedures "and greater agility in processing and payment." "It is key and it is a firm commitment," says the regional Secretary of Housing.
A year ago, when the Botànic government presented the latest edition of the Renhata program, the sector already warned of the difficulties in finding professionals in a field, construction, which lost many professionals with the 2008 crisis. This is how Fecoval saw it , the Federation of Public Works Contractors of the Valencian Community, which pointed out that some 200,000 professionals would be needed to assume the entire workload derived from European funds. According to his calculations, the sector continuously trains about 50,000-70,000 employees each year.
Now the rehabilitation companies regret that this situation is affecting the sector, since in the month of April 2023 it experienced a drop in activity of 60% in terms of production units. ASEFAVE estimates that the complete execution of the funds would increase the activity of the sector for the next three years by 20% annually, and the complete execution of the Next Generation funds, only in program 4 dedicated to the renovation of windows, would generate an activity of close to 1,000 million euros between now and 2026.
