Lisbon to increase rental subsidies

The Lisbon Chamber’s plan to fight inflation will include increasing the number of subsidies for rental housing, doubling that social support to allocate “up to 1,000 subsidies,” Municipal Executive President Carlos Moedas (PSD) said on Monday. . ).

“We want to increase the number of income subsidies, meaning what we currently have as an income support subsidy is not enough. We would like to increase to 1,000 subsidies in Lisbon,” the mayor said, believing that this is a very important measure because this social response is for people who find it difficult to pay rent in the housing market.

On the sidelines of the opening of the Teixeira de Pascoais Primary School in Alvalade District, Carlos Moedas explained that the municipal rent subsidy ensures that “the rent people pay does not exceed 30% of what they earn”, with the Municipality of Lisbon having to provide the remaining amount. and this support can reach up to 1/3 of the rent.

“We look at the family, we see what the income of the family is, and we try to limit income to 30% of income,” the mayor stressed, adding that this should be the maximum effort when accessing housing, but “unfortunately, rent in Lisbon very expensive and much more than that”, so it is necessary to have “more income support”.

Without disclosing the total amount provided by the council to boost this housing support, the mayor said the measure would be included in the Lisbon City Council (CML) anti-inflation plan that is being worked on. between all political forces that are part of the municipal executive power, which will be presented this week.

“In the anti-inflationary plan that we have, we will at least double the subsidies to support rent and continue to work on projects, whether in the RDP. [Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência]be it projects of the Chamber of Affordable Income, for teachers, for the police and for young people starting their careers,” the social democrat noted.

Asked about the difficulty in accessing housing in Lisbon, which affects the involvement of teachers and police officers in the city, Carlos Moedas acknowledged the problem and stated that there is a need to act on housing in many sectors, “from public housing to affordable, but also in specific sectors such as education and law enforcement.”

In addition to increasing the number of rental subsidies, the Lisbon City Council is building about 1,000 housing units, from affordable to municipal rent, according to the mayor.

On Friday, the Lisbon City Council began discussing possible responses to the impact of inflation, agreeing on proposals from all the political forces of the municipal executive to present a “reliable” support package, including one aimed at families.

While the BE and Independent Councilor Paula Marques (elected by the PS/Livre coalition) have already formalized proposals to combat the effects of inflation in the city of Lisbon, as well as the ideas voiced by Mayor Carlos Moedas (PSD), the Executive City Council decided to coordinate all the proposals of the political forces in order to work out a package of measures that is expected to be discussed this week.

Two weeks ago, the mayor of Lisbon announced his intention not to raise prices for public housing, including maintained rent and affordable rent, during 2023, an inflation-response measure that will benefit “about 21,000 families.”

On Wednesday, in an interview with RTP3, Carlos Moedas also highlighted free public transport for young and old people living in Lisbon, which “more than 35 people” have already joined, as measures that will affect the inflation crisis. thousand inhabitants of Lisbon. , and approving €4.4 million by 2023 for the Emergency Social Fund (FES), which serves to support families in need, in collaboration with the city’s 24 parish councils, to award a “check between €1,000 and €1,500” that can be used to pay rent or help with food.

Carlos Moedas has also spoken about fulfilling campaign promises such as free health insurance for the over-65s in need, a proposal he plans to present in October; a 3.5% personal income tax (IRS) refund to citizens in 2023, which will again increase by 0.5%, as it did this year, which rose from 2.5% to 3%; and an exemption from the Municipal Burdensome Transfer Tax (IMT) for young people under the age of 35 to purchase their own home.

BE proposed a municipal support program for families, association movements and companies with a set of 16 emergency measures for housing, economic activities, culture and transport, namely a 50 percent fee exemption, in the second half of 2022, referring to markets (places and shops ) and non-settled economic activities (fairs, street trade and provision of services), stalls and kiosks, as well as the occupation of public roads administered by KML.

Independent Counsel Paula Marquez also proposed six anti-inflation measures such as “no renewal of council and non-residential rentals to 1,000 m2 by 2023” and immediate application of an emergency 50% discount on utility bills. , municipal and additional waste indexed to drinking water contracts within the municipality, until December 31, 2022.

PS stated that “it does not submit any proposals without knowing the financial package that Carlos Moedas is ready to provide for the CML support program,” said Inez Drummond, urging PSD/CDS-PP management to invest at least $25. million euros that the chamber registered in 2020 under the chairmanship of the socialist Fernando Medina for the Emergency Social Fund instead of the 4.4 million approved until 2023.

With the ability to work alongside the rest of the executive branch, PCP and Livre advisers are also preparing measures to mitigate inflation in the city.