"This term of responsibility guarantees the continuation of the application and then the current assessment of the application will be made 'a posteriori'", said Miguel Pinto Luz, in an interview with Lusa, before the formal presentation of the Housing Strategy, scheduled for today, in Porto.

The government official justified that this will allow contracts to be signed with the municipalities "now", so that they can "allocate the amount" and "launch the competitions, whether for the project, for the work, or for whatever they understand" within the scope of the applications to the RRP.

"The municipalities have to take responsibility for what they have delivered", he stressed, explaining that the assessment will be made later.

This is because, of the more than 7,000 applications submitted to the RRP in the area of housing, "more than 6,000 are still pending [...]", which "is worrying", noted Miguel Pinto Luz.

"The current government inherited a very difficult situation", he pointed out, adding that he does not intend to "blame anyone".

In reality, he said, the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) "was not prepared" for "the volume of applications" received.

"At the pace at which we are working today, I would say that we could reach the end of this year and not have all the applications approved", he acknowledged.

Faced with this scenario, and after "close dialogue" with the European Commission, the RRP mission unit, other ministries and the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities, the Government proposes to "change the burden of proof".

The execution of the RRP "is for yesterday", pointed out the minister, aware that "it is not the 26,000 houses of the RRP that will solve the housing problem in Portugal", but that it is essential to ensure "absolute compliance" with this goal.

On the other hand, added Miguel Pinto Luz, the more than 7,000 applications submitted "correspond to more than 50,000 homes, when the RRP only foresees 26,000".

Now, the Government wants to find "solutions" for the applications that are left out, because it is necessary to increase the supply and because it may be the case that, later in the process, it is found that the approved applications "did not materialise due to reasons of the municipality itself, due to licensing reasons, due to delays in construction".

This kind of extraordinary grant "is not a short-term measure, because it is being studied from the point of view of the financial impact", said the minister, adding that there will be news within 30 days.

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