The draft of the building law contains errors and favors developers

Prague – According to opposition MPs, the amendment to the building law was not properly prepared, contains errors, and simultaneously prioritizes the interests of large builders over the needs of ordinary citizens. This was also one of the reasons why they voted for some of the amendments, but not for the acceptance of the entire amendment. Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček (ANO) stated that the law was passed in the Chamber by a narrow margin, even though the authors of the amendment tried to accommodate the opposition's proposals.

According to the Pirates, the change in the law will bring instability to the entire building code, will lead to prioritization of the interests of developers over smaller builders, and will not improve housing availability, as the government has allowed its definition to be struck from the law. "Young families and young people need more affordable housing. Unfortunately, the approved amendment to the building law goes in the opposite direction and will not help them,” said the leader of the Pirates Zdeněk Hřib.

MP Veronika Kovářová from the same party stated that the amendment lacked the traditional commenting process and that it legalizes the creation of illegal constructions. According to her, large development projects will be authorized by the main office, which will have enough employees, but smaller constructions will have to be handled by subordinate offices, which may not be sufficiently staffed.

Currently, according to previous data from the MMR, there are 638 building authorities in the Czech Republic. After the adoption of the amendment to the building law and the establishment of a central building administration, there should be 205 regional workplaces, 14 regional offices for spatial development, and one main Office of Spatial Development based in Prague.

According to MP Karel Haase (ODS), the amendment includes a number of positive points, such as the reduction in the number of building authorities or required building opinions. At the same time, it is also full of errors. "Changing a draft law that had 800 pages with an amendment of 1070 pages expresses in itself that it was not legislatively well prepared," he told reporters. According to him, the Ministry for Local Development did not act fairly and did not communicate with the stakeholders who were against the change in the law. This was, according to him, the reason why ODS MPs supported some amendments but did not vote for the acceptance of the entire amendment.

Lukáš Vlček (STAN) sees the situation similarly. He told reporters that even the Mayors did not vote for the acceptance of the change in the law. "I guarantee that the majority of MPs who voted for that law do not even know what they were voting for. Because there is incredible confusion in it, it is a legislative monstrosity that is written to favor developers and legalizes illegal constructions. The confusion that has been stirred from the beginning is incredibly unprofessional,” he added.

Havlíček pointed out that the final reading of the amendment to the building law was approved in the Chamber only thanks to the votes of the government coalition MPs. No opposition MP supported the change in the law, even though, according to Havlíček, the authors accommodated them and incorporated several amendments proposed by the opposition into the amendment. Thus, the law was passed by only two votes. Minister for Local Development Zuzana Mrázová (ANO) rejected the claim that the change in the law favors developers. MP Tomáš Doležal from SPD expressed the same view. According to him, the change is, on the contrary, made to simplify the work for small builders and citizens.