New Green Savings Program is to be for state buildings as well

Prague - The New Green Savings Program (NZÚ), in which owners of family houses and residential buildings in Prague can receive subsidies mainly for insulation, could also be opened to public buildings. The document on the change of documentation, to which the consultation process ended on Monday, proposes that up to 30 percent of the expected 27 billion crowns for NZÚ could be allocated to support state buildings until 2020. Critics, however, point out that if money is also used for renovations of state buildings, there will be a lack of funds for repairs of family houses. According to them, the state should only repair from its own budget.

According to the proposal from the Ministry of the Environment (MŽP), the subsidy amount for public buildings is to reach up to 85 percent, while for family houses it only ranges around 25 to 40 percent of eligible costs. NZÚ is also dependent on the development of revenues from emission allowances. Support for public buildings has been included in the program in the past without specific conditions, but it was not utilized. This document, according to experts, realistically introduces it.

MŽP spokesperson Petra Roubíčková told ČTK that the ministry will always prioritize support for energy savings in family and residential buildings. "According to studies and expert analyses of market absorption, we have calculated that within NZU we can support the insulation of public sector buildings at the same time as family and residential houses so that everyone can benefit," she stated.

The level of support for energy savings in public buildings will, according to Roubíčková, be around 50 percent of eligible costs. Only in cases where it is necessary to fulfill the requirement of increasing energy savings by three percent annually by 2020 for central government buildings, which is an irrevocable obligation according to current European legislation, will the support be 85 percent of eligible costs (in reality up to 50 percent of total costs).

"The support of 85 percent of eligible costs is completely unprecedented, as support for family or residential houses is often not even half of that. The state should repair its buildings from the state budget, or stop preventing the realization and financing of energy savings through commercially available method EPC (Energy Performance Contracting) and leave the money from the very popular and successful New Green Savings Program to the people," responded Petr Holub, director of the Alliance for Buildings, to ČTK's inquiry.

However, according to Roubíčková, the use of EPC cannot be utilized for financing the insulation of government buildings because the budgetary rules law does not allow it. According to the spokesperson, support for energy savings will lead to a reduction in expenditures in the state budget, and thus to savings for all taxpayers, she argues.

The Confederation of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic also expressed critical views on the proposal. In its statement, it stated that it fundamentally disagrees with the concept of the newly established subprogram for Public Sector Buildings. It considers the 85 percent coverage to be very above average. "In general, it is not appropriate for the state to take resources from a motivational program aimed at the household sector and redirect them for its own needs," it wrote.

The current New Green Savings Program allows owners of family houses throughout the Czech Republic and residential buildings in Prague to apply for subsidies at any time until the end of 2021. There is interest in the program. By the beginning of June, the State Environmental Fund received over 5,000 applications for more than one billion crowns.