Luis Montenegro asks the government to fix local housing proposals

The PSD president reaffirmed on Tuesday in Setúbal a commitment to reverse the measures announced by the government for local accommodation if he is elected prime minister and said the executive could still fix proposals for the sector.

“The call I want to make here is that the Socialist Party can correct some of the mistakes that it made in these proposals, because I do not hope that it will do it in full,” said Luis Montenegro after defending the package of measures which are the result of a dialogue with the Association of Local Accommodation in Portugal (ALEP).

“I sincerely hope that this activity can survive this attack from the government and the Socialist Party, so that in the near future we can meet again and provide local housing with decent and working conditions, which are important to create jobs, create supply, have a regulated activity, not what we had before there was local housing as we know it today,” he added.

Luis Montenegro, who spoke to reporters as part of the Sentir Portugal initiative, which will last until Thursday in the Setúbal region, said that local housing does not harm the housing sector.

“Ten, fifteen years ago, local residential buildings, most of them, were abandoned, fell into disrepair, without any employment,” the SDP leader said, assuring that there were also many local residential buildings, but they were declared and that, therefore, were “outside the sieve of health care rules, tax rules, conditions rules that are provided to local housing customers.”

“I stayed in local accommodation, as I always do when I come to spend these weeks of the Sentir Portugal initiative in the areas, and I can confirm that, for example, the building I use this week would not have been rehabilitated if it had there was no such purpose. It would be a mistake to think that rehabilitation would take place for housing purposes, because it was not profitable,” Luis Montenegro stressed.

The leader of the SDP, who during the ferry crossing between Setúbal and Troy also advocated the inclusion of this river route in the Navegante Pass, was waiting on the other side of the river for the president of the Association of Locals of Portugal (ALEP). ), Eduardo Miranda.

“Error [do Governo] It starts by linking local housing in the Mais Habitação package, inserting a discussion of such an important sector with so many detailed questions that it needs more consideration in the Mais Habitação package. Local housing is neither a problem nor a solution to the problem of housing,” said Eduardo Miranda.

“It was the choice of the government. The government went further, submitted its proposal to Parliament, but also left an indication that this would be a moment in Parliament for debate, for discussion. Our association does not represent laws and, therefore, “We spoke with the parties and saw what the sensitivity of those parties who would be interested in deepening the topic was,” he added.

According to Eduardo Miranda, PSD showed interest and openness to try to find solutions and present an alternative proposal “showing that this balance between housing, between condominiums, between neighbors, between local housing is possible.”

“From now on, we still have a negotiation period before the final vote. We hope this will help open the door to what the ruling party has always said that, despite an absolute majority, it will be available to find a balance. And this is what we would like to see from now on, because there are options, there are several options,” said the president of ALEP.

As part of PSD’s Sentir Portugal initiative, which is touring across the country, the PSD leader visited the Navigator factory in Setúbal on Tuesday to learn about the challenges in the sector and the entire paper production chain.

“We had the opportunity to be in contact with the pulp and paper industry, and through it with the entire forest sector, an area which, unfortunately, has also been neglected in recent years and which, in our opinion, is strategic, not only to guarantee greater territorial cohesion in our country, as well as to be able to pursue a forestry policy in order to make the most of our natural resources and drastically reduce the risk of forest fires,” said Luis Montenegro.

“We have a very interesting ‘cluster’ of activity in Portugal, which is the European leader in paper printing, and which naturally needs to be monitored. Unfortunately, we have a government that underestimates the value of our agriculture, the production potential of our agriculture, as well as our forest,” the SDP leader concluded.