Yesterday, at a press conference in Irkutsk, the mayor of the city, Vladimir Yakubovsky, told Irkutsk journalists about the results of the congress of municipalities and innovations in the law “On General Principles of Local Self-Government” concerning the capital of the Angara region. However, Irkutsk journalists turned the conversation to a more pressing topic—the lack of housing in the city and underfunding of the construction complex. The mayor promised to work more actively with banks to provide housing construction loans.

The Irkutsk mayor began the press conference with a short story about Irkutsk’s victory at the “Golden Ruble” competition for the financial development of the Russian economy. The capital of the Angara region won the nomination “Best city in terms of economic indicators of financial development” in the Siberian Federal District. After this, the conversation turned to the results of the Congress of Municipal Entities (CMO) of the Russian Federation (Vladimir Yakubovsky is a member of the board of the CMO - “Kommersant”), held on November 11 in Moscow. According to the Irkutsk mayor, the main topic of the meeting was the discussion of the federal law “On General Principles of Local Self-Government,” adopted a month and a half ago by the State Duma. Representatives of local authorities proposed starting a large-scale reform by improving the financial security of cities. For example, they proposed leaving 70% of the collected personal income tax in city budgets (currently 30%—Kommersant). The mayors also managed to restore the Council for the Development of Local Self-Government under the Government of the Russian Federation and agreed to create a similar structure under the President of Russia.
The mayor of Irkutsk noted that the new provisions of the law will primarily affect municipalities in rural areas. In the city, only the composition of the Duma will change significantly - instead of 14 deputies, it will include at least 35, and 3-4 elected members will work on an exempt basis. In addition, Mr. Yakubovsky spoke about another innovation - in accordance with the adopted law, a popularly elected mayor will be able to become either the head of the Duma or the head of the administration, but will not be able to combine posts. It is interesting that if the elected mayor decides to become chairman of the city council, legislators will have to hire a professional manager to head the city administration.
Answering a question about the state of affairs in the field of housing construction (the mayor's office of Irkutsk has been repeatedly criticized for the low pace of construction, which has led to a sharp increase in prices for new and old apartments - Kommersant), the mayor noted that the administration has been discussing Sberbank with the Baikal Bank since the beginning of the year housing construction lending options.
Sberbank proposed its own scheme for lending to construction firms for the construction of houses at the same time as issuing mortgage loans to citizens wishing to buy an apartment in these new buildings (Kommersant has repeatedly written about this). From the mayor’s words, it became clear that the city administration has not yet made a choice: which bank to cooperate with. Mr. Yakubovsky said that the mayor's office will hold a competition in the new year, the winner of which will be the financial institution that offers the lowest interest rate on mortgage loans for individuals. Vladimir Yakubovsky told Kommersant that the mayor's office has prepared construction sites on which up to 100 thousand square meters can be built. m (about 50 nine-story buildings - Kommersant), design documentation for the houses is also ready. According to the mayor of the city, “all that remains is to involve banks in circulation.”
Here the journalists conveyed to the mayor complaints from the heads of Irkutsk construction companies that they were not allowed to expand in the city, allocating only blocks with dilapidated buildings for construction sites, and not vacant plots. “And that’s normal,” said the mayor, “they get a good margin by selling apartments, so they’re ashamed to complain.” Apparently, the topic really touched a nerve with the mayor—he categorically stated that in the city only sites with slums would be allocated to construction workers. The mayor emphasized that there is no other way to renew the city and resettle people from dilapidated housing.

SERGEY BERG

Kommersant (Irkutsk) No. 211 dated November 19, 2003

The mayor of Irkutsk sent construction workers to the slums