Re-announcement for 2023 of Housing Plans for Mountainous, Arid and Rural Areas and plans for allowances for mountainous and remote areas
The Council of Ministers approved two plans of the Ministry of Interior.
We are today re-launching the Home Office housing plans with significant re-improvements.
I recall that last year we re-launched the plans and as a result of the many improvements we have made, a total of 904 families benefited, at a cost of €32.5 million.
This year, we are re-launching the specific housing plans for mountainous, marginal, disadvantaged and extremely mountainous areas. These are projects that we are re-launching with an additional expenditure, from €15 million last year to €20 million.
In addition, with this particular project, however, we are also improving the issues of subsidy policy.
I should mention that for 2022 alone, 21 people benefited from the subsidy for mountain areas.200 people, with the total assistance granted amounting to approximately €5 million, while I recall that the Council of Ministers, in an effort to further support our people living in mountainous areas, decided to provide one-off assistance equal to 50% of the assistance of these allowances, i.e. assistance with an additional expenditure of €4.6 million. to enable people living in mountainous areas to cope with poverty and crisis.
Our plans aim to tackle, among other things, homelessness and, of course, with this year's corrective measures, we are demonstrating in practice that we really want to:
- improve and increase the pool of beneficiaries of these plans
- add specific areas that are really in need, always on the basis of the economic data and parameters that the State can.
With these interventions we are targeting young people.
In this year's Housing Plans we have included:
- Exceptionally three communities that are entirely within the neutral zone - and they are the only ones - and obviously face very particular problems. And I refer to the communities of Mammari, Deneia and Trullo. These are the three areas that are being upgraded from the "Acritic" category to the "Mountain and Disadvantaged Areas" category, which increases both the benefits and, of course, the income eligibility criteria for these projects.
- The second improvement concerns the exceptional inclusion of the Municipality of Athienou. It is also upgraded from the category 'Acritic' to the category 'Mountainous and Less Favoured Areas', due to the geographical specificity of the municipality, which, apart from its proximity to the line of demarcation, is practically landlocked, with limited development potential. Therefore, we are giving this possibility of increased benefits in an attempt to support population growth in this area.
- The third improvement relates to population growth in the residential area of Pyla. There is a section in Pyla that has not been included in the "Acritic" areas to date. And with specific inclusion we are helping to further improve the population density.
In addition to the improvements in the housing plans, we have also improved the subsidy policy and support plans.
- Exceptionally we have included 7 additional communities. Those of Agios Ambrosios Limassol, Doros, Kapilios, Kedara, Limnati, Messana and Monagriou. These are seven communities, which were deemed to be included in the subsidy support scheme.
- In addition, we prepared a special project under the housing policy and it concerns the community of Strovilia. Strovilia is showing a picture of abandonment. There is an inability to grant planning permission for the construction of buildings. Recognising the specificity of the Community of Strovilia and wanting to enable us to attract residents, we have included under this housing policy a new, separate Grant Scheme, through which financial assistance will be granted, as an alternative, to those owners who wish to repair existing dwellings to enable them to reside in the Community of Strovilia.
For all housing projects, the application start date will be March 1, 2023, with a closing date of December 31, 2023, not because it is the closing date. We want to hope that any new government will follow our policy of reassessing every year-as we have done for the last three years-and reopen the plans. For the Allowance Schemes, 3 April 2023 is the start date, with a closing date of 30 April 2023.
Finally, I want to let you know that there will be a detailed presentation by the Home Office next week on the Schemes, so that all the current provisions will be made known.
(EFYs/MB/SX)
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