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EBRD funds Siberian municipal housing project
Bank sees Surgut project as model for urban renewal in other Russian municipalities
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has lent 700 million
roubles (equivalent to €20 million) to fund urban renewal in the Siberian oil
centre of Surgut and lay the foundations for major transformation of the
housing stock whose model could be copied by other Russian municipalities.
The EBRD’s first project in Russia’s municipal housing sector aims to achieve
three key goals: creating energy efficient housing, involving the private
sector in construction and housing maintenance and encouraging residents to
get involved in the management of the buildings in which they live. The Bank
sees these as key to renewing the sector and ensuring its sustainability.
This pilot project will pave the way for implementing a wider programme of
urban renewal in Surgut which the EBRD estimates could achieve energy savings
of 30 percent. The money saved would be sufficient to heat a town of 30-50,000
people in Western Europe.
Around 30 percent of Russia’s housing was built in 1960-1980, a period when
prefabricated concrete panels were widely used to achieve high rates of
construction. The resulting apartment blocks are not only very inefficient in
energy terms, but have a limited lifetime and are now deteriorating rapidly,
amplifying the housing problems facing the population.
The problem is particularly acute in Surgut, a small town which mushroomed
after the oilfields of western Siberia came on tap in the 1960s. It now
numbers some 300,000 people. The city is part of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous
Okrug (District), which produces 60 percent of Russia’s current oil output,
making it one of the richest of the country’s regions.
The Russian government has made housing one of its national priorities. The
EBRD is participating in the Surgut project in the hope that its structure and
techniques can be replicated in other parts of the country in a way that will
attract private sector involvement in the massive task of refurbishing
Russia’s housing stock and creating a new and economically sustainable base
for its upkeep, said EBRD President Jean Lemierre at a signing ceremony in the
regional capital.
The Surgut project will involve demolishing two buildings which are beyond
repair and building four new ones both to house people moved out of the two
demolished buildings and to create nearly 600 apartments which can be sold on
the open market to finance the costs. Up to a quarter of the overall housing
created will be earmarked as municipal housing for low-income tenants..
In a separate project, the EBRD last year extended a loan of 700 million
roubles which will benefit the surrounding district, known as the Surgutsky
Rayon. This will be used to improve district heating, as well as water and
wastewater services in small settlements spread over a 105,000 square
kilometre area around Surgut where some 112,000 people live. The aim is to
commercialise these services as well as to improve them and increase their
reliability. The EU funded a technical feasibility study prioritising the
necessary investments.
Both projects are part of a wider 38 billion rouble programme of investments
and guarantees being undertaken by the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
(District) to support reform of communal and housing services in its
municipalities with the aim of making these self-sustainable.
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