Rustem Khamitov has taken part in Republican meeting re violations of the law in sphere of housing and communal services

Habitat comfort in housing and communal service sphere is one of the vitally important challenges for all of us. This is the theme, which troubles and unites people of different ages, professions and political views. The President RB Rustem Khamitov has taken part in the meeting, held in Bashkir public prosecutor’s office on Tuesday, October 30, with participation of representatives of Republican law-enforcement bodies, who were discussing problems of struggle with crimes and violations of the law in sphere of housing and communal services.

“For many years we talk about problems in sphere of housing and communal services every day in our country. We are all roomers, irrespective of the posts we occupy and we all know these endless problems, surrounding us either in the apartment houses we live in, or in our yards and streets. Four million people live in our Republic, the average housing makes up 20 square meters per one person and there are more than 80 million square meters of housing in Bashkortostan. This housing has to be protected, looked after and repaired. If we add entrances, garrets, roofs, yards and basements here, it turns out that this vast territory needs constant care and, sure, these huge volumes generate wide money streams. This is the whole river of money but it is clear that these sums aren’t enough and in order to put everything in order, we need much more” – Rustem Khamitov said.

In continuation of the theme the President RB indicated the problem of dilapidated housing. There are about one million square meters of such housing only in Ufa. Rustem Khamitov has underscored that in order to erect new housing even at the price of 30 thousand rubles for one square meter, it is necessary to have 30 billion rubles.

“We need about 100 billion rubles just to get rid of old housing” – the President of Bashkortostan said – “Our whole consolidated budget is equal to 135-140 billion rubles, i.e. we need colossal sums”.

One more burning theme is housing tariffs.

“This theme is really of paramount importance for all of us” – the head of the Republic says – “Our people aren’t rich. The average salary is 20 thousand rubles and, sure, people can’t afford themselves to pay much for housing and communal services. At the same time our tariffs are the lowest in Volga federal district. Communal tariffs weren’t changed for almost 10 years. For instance, in heat supply our figures are by 35-40% lower than in Volga federal district on average” – Rustem Khamitov said and added that the tariffs were high because life support systems in Bashkir towns were depreciated.

“Here we are standing before the double aim: from one side tariffs have to be economically reasonable and from the other side the infrastructure has to be in appropriate conditions”.