Luís Montenegro made this promise at the prime minister's official residence, in São Bento, after presiding over the signing ceremony of agreements with 18 municipalities in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, Guimarães, Fafe, Matosinhos and Lamego for the support program access to housing, within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which foresees the construction of 4,483 new homes for families most in need.

The chief executive highlighted that the budget for the construction of these 4,483 houses - worth 400 million euros - was released last Friday, at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, and is part of the “effort” that this Government is making to ensure that the goals set out in the PRR are met.

Noting that the implementation of the housing program foreseen in the PRR is delayed, Luís Montenegro stressed that the executive is “doing everything to speed it up” with regard to financing, accusing the previous Government of not having “duly ensured” the additional investment required.

According to the prime minister, the PRR foresees financing of 1,400 million euros for the construction of 26 thousand homes, a sum that was reinforced by the previous executive by 390 million euros, through the State Budget, but which the prime minister considers insufficient.


“We needed another 400 million euros. (…) We are talking about 790 million euros that the State Budget will endorse and allocate to this program, without which it would not be possible not only to build the houses that were programmed in the PRR, but also to use the PRR funds themselves”, he stressed.

The Prime Minister highlighted that, with this financing secured, “these 26 thousand homes still need to be built” and then “deal with many others, even a little more than these, that the municipalities also want to create and build”, despite It should be noted that the executive still does not have “all the financial instruments that are necessary for its promotion”.

“I want here, on behalf of the Government, to leave you a word of confidence that we will do everything in the coming months too, on top of this investment from the PRR and the State Budget, find a financial solution that can, with the municipalities, be likely to make the objective of doubling the construction of houses achievable, which, with this program, is guaranteed”, he guaranteed.

Luís Montenegro said that the reason for the delay in implementing the housing program is also due to “excessive bureaucracy and procedures”, which he considered “made it very difficult to approve applications”.

To “overcome this blockage”, the Prime Minister highlighted that, in the contracts signed today with the Government, the municipal councils assume “a term of responsibility”, in which they undertake to “comply with all the stipulations that the program contemplates ”.

“In the logic of the progress of the process and in the logic of any non-conformities that may be detected, they can be corrected as the process progresses, (…) instead of waiting to resolve everything that is a small bureaucracy, sometimes even detail, suspending the progress of the process”, he explained.

Montenegro highlighted that the executive is seeking to accelerate the implementation of the PRR not only in housing but also in health and education, recognizing that this is a “giant challenge” and “very demanding”.

On the part of the Government, they will always count on the acceleration of processes, maximum attempt to remove bureaucracy and waste of time and capacity for additional financing in cases where it is necessary”, he assured.