from 24.3.2020 - 43 min.
The Wealth Redistribution Alliance is focussing on social justice in the 2017 election year and is launching the campaign "Redistribute wealth - a fair country for all!" just in time for the Bundestag election campaign. In total 30 organisations, from trade unions, welfare and youth associations to migrant and environmental organisationshave joined forces in the alliance, which made its first public appearance today at the Federal Press Conference in Berlin. The strategic aim is to place tax and redistribution policy at the centre of the election campaign alongside the issue of social justice. Among other things, they are calling for greater taxation of financially strong companies as well as large assets, incomes and inheritances.
"The social divide has reached an intolerable level," said Frank Bsirske, Chairman of the United Services Union (ver.di). Social inequality, insecurity and injustice have been increasing worldwide and in Germany for decades. The key to a fairer and better policy for all is a turnaround in tax policy. Millionaires and billionaires should therefore be asked to contribute more to the financing of public tasks, said Bsirske.
The enormous private wealth contrasts with massive public poverty, which is clearly visible in more and more municipalities. "Germany is running on empty. In many places, spending on culture, social affairs and education is being cut beyond the pain threshold due to financial hardship. A solidary tax and financial policy is ultimately the acid test and the test of credibility for anyone who runs on the promise of a good welfare state and more social justice," says Ulrich Schneider, Managing Director of the Paritätischer Gesamtverband.
"The increasing social divide in society is also evident on the housing markets. We need permanently priced social housing, at least an additional 80,000 a year, as well as a needs-based housing allowance and the assumption of actually appropriate housing costs in the standard rates of Hartz IV. This is another reason why financially strong corporations, large fortunes, billionaires and millionaires must contribute more than before to the costs of the common good. Redistributing wealth means creating tax justice, closing tax loopholes and drying up tax havens," says Ulrich Ropertz, Managing Director of the German Tenants' Association.
The unequal distribution of wealth goes hand in hand with unequal power relations worldwide and is therefore also a serious threat to social cohesion in Germany, warns the alliance. Barbara Eschen, spokesperson for the National Poverty Conference and Director of Diakonie Berlin-Brandenburg, emphasises: "Germany is a rich country. It is all the more scandalous that so many people in Germany are left behind because they are poor. The wealth in Germany must be redistributed. And there must finally be an end to playing different groups of people in need off against each other."
The action alliance also sees its demands strengthened by the current poverty and wealth report by the German government, in which the government itself warns of an excessive division in society and admits that employees often feel that their efforts are not sufficiently respected, that the long-term unemployed are not benefiting proportionately from the German job boom and that the service sector is lagging behind in terms of wage increases. "We share this diagnosis. Now we need to turn words into action. If we want to combat poverty, we must strengthen collective bargaining agreements and stabilise and gradually raise the statutory pension," said ver.di Chairman Frank Bsirske.
Website: www.reichtum-umverteilen.de
Source PM:
www.reichtum-umverteilen.de/...buendnis-umverteilen-stellt-forderungen-zur-bundestagswahl-vor
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The 52° Nord quarter in Berlin's southeast convinced this year's jury of experts and, with its sustainable and architecturally coherent overall concept, wins the German Housing 2020 Award for the best quarter development.
The Award Deutscher Wohnungsbau is the first award for developers and clients in the area of multi-storey residential construction. The architecture prize is awarded by a jury of experts. This year's jury members include Reiner Nagel, Chairman of the Executive Board Federal Foundation for Building Culture, Sabine Schneider, Editorial Manager of the architecture magazine Baumeister and last year's winner Lars Krückeberg, GRAFT Architekten.
The award-winning 52° North quarter covers around 100,000 m² and is located in the Grünau district of Treptow-Köpenick between the banks of the Dahme River and the Teltow Canal on a former industrial wasteland. A striking feature of this district development is the 6,000 m² water basin, the ecological and visual heart of the district: as part of the overall sustainable concept, rainwater from the surrounding buildings is collected here and biologically purified by planting along the sides. Evaporation returns the rainwater to the natural water cycle and improves the microclimate in the quarter - an example of contemporary rainwater management based on the model of the sponge city.
A neighbourhood square with a café, publicly accessible riverside promenades, play and recreation areas, an energy centre and an eco-nursery round off the concept. Daniel Riedl, member of the Management Board of Vonovia SE and responsible for BUWOG's development in Germany: "In Quartier 52° Nord, we have implemented a quality-first approach, i.e. with the first construction phase we have designed a sustainable residential environment that creates flair and quality of life at the same time - for the new residents and also for the people in the surrounding area. This award confirms to us that architectural and sustainable qualities must be thought of together and are essential success factors in neighbourhood development."
With a large number of different architectural firms designing the individual buildings on the various construction sites, Quartier 52° Nord is today one of the largest inhabited architectural parks of the post-reunification era. The area is being developed in sections, with overall completion expected by 2024. Three construction phases are currently under construction in Quartier 52° Nord: BUWOG THE VIEW, BUWOG REGATTAHOF and the BUWOG LOTSENHÄUSER - realised in timber hybrid construction (KfW-40).
About BUWOG
BUWOG can look back on 69 years of experience in the residential real estate sector. In Germany, BUWOG Bauträger GmbH currently concentrates on property development with a focus on Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig and currently has a development pipeline of around 14,500 residential units. BUWOG is a subsidiary of Vonovia SE, Europe's leading housing company headquartered in Bochum (Germany).
Source: BUWOG-PM dated 13.10.2020
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Greening / climate adaptation, DE-News, News Blog Berlin, Settlements, Water, Water design, Contests & Prizes, Housing
Adjusted for inflation, construction volume will decline in 2022 - Price development and rising interest rates will continue to have a severe impact on the construction industry in the years to come - New residential construction will slump more than the overall construction volume - Policymakers will have to change their strategy in order to achieve their goals for the creation of new housing and energy-efficient building renovation in the medium term
Inflation and supply bottlenecks have stopped the construction boom in Germany: In 2022, real construction volume declined for the first time in many years, by around two percent. Similar declines are expected this year as well. Only in 2024 will the construction volume, adjusted for inflation, be back in the black. Residential construction in particular is disproportionately affected by the decline. This is the result of the current calculations of the construction volume, which are prepared annually by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin).
© DIW Berlin
Although the construction volume rose by a record-breaking 13.6 percent last year in nominal terms, i.e. in current prices, the increase is solely due to the rapid rise in construction prices. Although this gave the construction companies good sales, adjusted for inflation, construction activity fell by two percent. The urgently needed new housing construction was and is particularly affected, which was even down 4.5 per cent in real terms. "For many years, residential construction has always grown faster than the overall construction volume. Now there are signs of a trend reversal, especially in new construction, which policymakers must take into account," says study author Laura Pagenhardt.
The federal government's goal of building 400,000 new flats per year is thus becoming a distant prospect. Already in the last two years, no more than 300,000 flats have been built. This year and next, the study authors expect that worsening financing conditions and political uncertainty will make investors even more cautious. However, construction prices are likely to rise less sharply due to the easing of supply chains and declining capacity utilisation. "Adjusted for inflation, the construction volume will probably still be negative this year and will only be positive again from 2024, but even then residential construction, especially new construction, is likely to lag behind the overall development," expects study author Martin Gornig.
"What is needed is a master plan that not only supports demand with long-term funding programmes, but also counteracts the bottlenecks in supply" Martin Gornig
He therefore calls for a change in strategy. Although the federal government has already decided on measures to promote housing construction through taxation, it must focus more on redensification of existing buildings in order to create affordable new housing, especially in urban areas. At the same time, there is a danger that a large part of the subsidies, especially for energy-efficient building renovation, will evaporate into rising prices if the supply side is not strengthened in addition to the demand side. According to Gornig, what is needed is a master plan that not only supports demand with long-term subsidy programmes. In addition, it must increasingly promote the expansion of planning, production and installation capacities in order to counteract bottlenecks in supply and thus price increases.
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DE-News, Quarters, Settlements, Housing, Housing policy
Strengthen energy refurbishment of buildings and demand responsibility from landlords.
Housing policy must create supportive framework conditions and thus contribute to the reduction of living space.
"For a necessary energy turnaround in the housing industry, conditions must be created that demonstrate noticeable incentives for owners and users to consume less energy in the future," says DAI President Dipl.-Ing. Architekt Arnold Ernst. On the occasion of the Federation Day of the German Associations of Architects and Engineers (DAI), a declaration on current topics of building and planning culture is published in annual succession. For previous DAI statements, see below.
In Germany, CO2 emissions from buildings are equivalent to the pollution caused by traffic. The intensity of the public discussion does not reflect this. This is all the more reason why architects and engineers are called upon to show responsibility in their field and to demonstrate ways in which they intend to make their contribution to sustainable climate protection.
The technical solutions are available, and we need to develop better methods, especially for the sustainable retrofitting of existing buildings. However, there is a lack of incentives for owners and users to implement and tolerate energy-efficient refurbishment. It is easier to demand climate protection than to pay for it. The environmental impact of CO2 emissions is (still) free, but avoiding it costs money, a lot of money in existing buildings. The landlord shies away from the investment because only a small part can be passed on to the rents. The tenant has an understandable insistence on not changing the size and location of his flat, especially as long as the parties keep deciding on new socially undifferentiated benefits in the competition for the cheapest rents. Both landlords and tenants must make their economic contribution in order to finance the comprehensive energy-efficient refurbishment of the housing stock.
The benchmark for all participants must be the Polluter pays principle be. Those who contribute to the release of CO2 must have an economic advantage if they actively participate in the reduction; those who refuse to participate must have an economic disadvantage as a result.
The DAI demands:
Both levies make it more expensive to live in buildings that are not optimised in terms of energy efficiency. Weighing up the direct financial burden on those affected and the long-term burden of climate change, the DAI considers the additional costs incurred to be justified. Support for economically weak households in line with the social market economy must ensure that the entitlement to adequate housing is met.
As appropriate in the sense of social indigence 30 sqm per person + 20 sqm for each additional person in a dwelling are considered. Appropriate transitional periods should on the one hand avoid social hardship and on the other hand continuously stimulate stronger incentives for the adaptation of housing conditions to economic performance. In order to also stimulate the corresponding adjustment processes above the level of social need, the regulation of the rent level should be waived, but in the case of existing tenancies with an appropriate limitation of the annual increase, also in order to facilitate the adjustment to economic performance.
DAI Presidium
Note sdg21: the statement presented here does not reflect the opinion of the sdg21 editorial team.
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Stock, DE-News, Renewable, Climate protection, Affordable housing, Housing, Housing policy, Thermal insulation, Ecology
