Pedro Nuno wants to “strengthen” “good examples” in the housing sector

The Secretary General of the PS said this Monday that the work carried out in Entroncamento to reclaim vacant public properties for affordable rentals is a “good example” of an ongoing process that needs to be intensified at the national level.

“This is a good example of how we should work in Portugal. The central administration makes the policy, the central administration funds, and the local authorities do what they do better than the central administration: know who needs it, identify the needs, and then implement it, with income that is clearly available, well below the rents practiced on the market, doubled and sometimes even a third,” said Pedro Nuno Santos.

This Monday, the leader of the PS visited the restoration work of 40 single-family houses in the Vila Verde area, in Entroncamento, Santarem district, intended for middle-class families, with the delivery of the first batch of 24 T2 type houses available for rent. at the beginning of the month to the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), an organization whose competitions for the corresponding award will continue until March 18 through a draw.

The PS Secretary General wanted to show in Entroncamento that “the country is in a phase of construction, construction and reconstruction,” indicating that it is necessary to “intensify” the work that has already begun in housing construction in order to “respond to the needs” of the population.

In the case of Entroncamento, Pedro Nuno Santos visited “an area that has been empty for 20 years” where “the work is completed” and ready for delivery “in March”, saying it is a “good example” of how to rehabilitate a vacant heritage and hand it over for affordable rent.

The rental contracts for the 24 houses in Entroncamento are for permanent residence, and T2 prices range from 294 to 350 euros per month.

“This shows that the country is under construction, that it is building houses, rebuilding houses for our people, and that is what I wanted to show. I wanted to show that this is work that has begun, that it is beginning to bear fruit. , that it is necessary to step up,” said Pedro Nuno Santos, noting that “the houses exist because there were programs that the government launched.”

The project that Pedro Nuno Santos visited this Monday in Entroncamento is being implemented in an area of ​​the state that has been empty for several decades and represents an investment of about 3.7 million euros as part of the Plan for Rehabilitation and Resilience (PRR).

The work, which began in February 2023 and is expected to last for 360 days, is the result of the direct intervention of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), which will act as landlord and will rent out the houses after a competition under the affordable rentals already open to middle-income families .

“This is indeed one of the ways, because there is no silver bullet to solve the housing problem, but it is one of the ways that needs to be intensified in order to be able to respond to the needs of our population,” confirmed the PS Secretary General. .

In a district that will elect nine deputies to parliament and where the PS elected five deputies in the last legislative elections, Pedro Nuno Santos, who was accompanied by the president of the municipality of Entroncamento Jorge Faria (PS), and candidates from the Electoral District of Santarem, where Alexandra Leitan heads the list. stated that it expects a “big victory” on March 10.

“We want to win a great victory and we expect the people of Santarem to win and put Portugal on the path to growth, economic and social progress,” in contrast to the “dark right” and “divisionists,” he said.

“We cannot stop and we cannot risk the dark right, the divisive right, defeating our country. We need to take care of all of Portugal, and for socialists, the problems of some are the problems of all,” he concluded. .