The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma) has provisionally granted 6,324,773.6 euros of European NextGenerationEU recovery funds to 3 local entities in La Rioja to rehabilitate 3 public buildings of its ownership. The provisional resolution, published yesterday in electronic headquarters, corresponds to Line 2 of the Program to Promote the Rehabilitation of Public Buildings of local ownership (Pirep Local) of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). The average grant for each project is €1.51 million.
In particular, the projects selected are:
- Rehabilitation old bus station in Logroño - 2,577,412.62 euros.
- Integral reform of the Consistorial House of the Villa de Quel - 886,169.41 euros.
- Reform of the Municipal Sports Complex La Planilla - 2,861,191.57 euros.
These three projects that will receive European aid to rehabilitate buildings add to the 6 selected in Line 1 with more than 4.3 million euros:
- Munilla. Chocolate Museum. 767,251.22 euros.
- Alfaro. Rehabilitation of the old school José Elorza. 1,999,862.2 euros.
- Cervera del Río Alhama. Rehabilitation of the House of Culture. 483,474 euros.
- Villar de Arnedo. Rehabilitation of the Consistorial House. 459,562.5 euros.
- Calm down. Rehabilitation of the Consistorial House. 622.004.8 euros.
- San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Rehabilitation of the building for the Civic Center. 122,120.93 euros.
Local Pirep Line 2
Mitma has selected 181 projects from among the 1,020 presented by 880 municipalities, deputies, cabildos and island consells based on criteria of architectural quality, solidity, governance, integral approach, innovation and opportunity, so all of them register an approach based on the principles of quality promulgated by the Law of Quality of Architecture.
It should not be forgotten that the call was held in a competitive competition, so the actions that obtained the highest score have been selected.
After the publication of the list, the local entities selected will have until April 18 to expressly accept the aid, before the final resolution is published.
The definitive granting of the aid means that, once the rehabilitation has been completed, the buildings must be used for public use for at least 20 years and generate significant savings in their energy consumption. Not in vain, the objectives of the program are to help improve energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, ensuring the reduction of more than 30% of non-renewable primary energy consumption, improving accessibility, habitability and promoting the conservation of the building park.
The actions financed must be technically and financially solvent and must be effectively implemented and in operation by 31 March 2026.
Public Buildings Rehabilitation Program
This provisional resolution puts an end to the calls for the Pirep program, included in Investment 5 of Component 2 of the PRTR, financed from the NextGenerationEU Funds and endowed with 1,080 million euros of budget, of which 480 million have already been transferred to the autonomous communities and cities of Ceuta and Melilla to finance the energy rehabilitation of their public park.
The remaining 600 million euros have been allocated to the call for the local Pirep in lines 1 and 2 with which, for the moment, 586 rehabilitation projects of 551 different local entities are financed throughout the Spanish geography. Almost all the funds have already been allocated and the remainder, until the total budget is completed, will be distributed through the final resolution, once the deadline for acceptances, allegations and waivers is closed.
Of the local entities provisionally selected in this second line, funding has been obtained for more than one rehabilitation project. At this point, it should be remembered that municipalities, provincial capitals, consells, councils and deputies with more than 50,000 inhabitants could submit three applications, while local entities with between 20,000 and 50,000 inhabitants could submit two. Thus, half of the applications of Line 2 have been proposed by municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, registering a greater participation of municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and provincial capitals than in Line 1.
One of the main differences between the two lines is that the projects presented to Line 2 must meet, at least two of the three scale requirements set out in Article 8.2 of the Basic Ministerial Order: have a work budget equal to or greater than 500,000 euros, collect an intervention in at least 1,000 square meters of surface and, finally, that the degree of intervention of the action is equal to or greater than 500 euros/m2.
The initial objective of this program is to intervene in at least 1.23 million square meters (m2) of public space between now and 2026 to help meet the challenge of having a quality park and high energy efficiency decarbonized in 2050, in line with the objectives of the fight against climate change. Not surprisingly, the public park accounts for around 12% of the total energy consumption of the non-residential sector.
The program
An important part of the 181 provisionally selected actions have been the result of a project competition, in line with the purposes of the Law of Quality of Architecture, for its holistic vision and the promotion of the quality of architecture that was one of the evaluation criteria included in the call (criterion of Governance, art. 16.3 Order TMA 178/2022).
The European funds NextGenerationEU finance up to one hundred percent of the eligible costs of the actions aimed at reducing, at least, 30% of the consumption of non-renewable primary energy, and in the case of the complementary ones (sustainability, accessibility, habitability and conservation) 85% of the eligible costs are subsidised, without exceeding 50% of the amount of the main actions (reduction of consumption of non-renewable raw energy).
This comprehensive approach has been one of the great bets of this program, which seeks to contribute to the fight against climate change, improve the quality of life and solve important deficiencies of the public built park related to habitability issues, such as poor acoustic comfort, air quality inside the building, accessibility problems and the improvement of obsolete or outdated distributions with new forms of work, etc.