Comments on the Building Act can be addressed by the MMR until the end of March

Prague - The Ministry for Regional Development will address comments on the controversial proposal for a new building law until the end of March, two months later than originally planned. Today, it received approval from Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO). This was announced by the minister responsible for preparing the regulation, Klára Dostálová (for ANO). The government also postponed the discussion on the analysis from the Ministry of the Interior, which did not recommend transferring officials from municipalities to the state in the planned changes to building law. Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (ČSSD) wrote to ČTK that the ministries will still negotiate on the matter.

Organizations defending the interests of cities and municipalities opposed the ministry's proposal for the building law, including the so-called institutional change. They argue that the proposal is so poor that it should be withdrawn and a completely new one presented. They have called on the minister to do so. According to Dostálová, the new law was prepared in accordance with the approved legislative intent and there is no reason to withdraw it. "The draft wording is not a dogma; we are ready to negotiate. So let's not write calls, but please communicate directly and let's solve the problematic passages together," she stated in a press release.

According to Dostálová, the new system will eliminate a large number of stamps and provide clear and enforceable deadlines. The institutional changes, according to the minister, will also resolve issues of representativeness and sharing officials.

President Miloš Zeman spoke about the need to expedite the building process in a speech at the end of last year; this is also a priority for Prime Minister Babiš. The Ministry for Regional Development ended the collection of comments on the controversial regulation on December 23. It is now processing these comments.

The analysis from the Ministry of the Interior, which ČTK has access to, mentions high costs associated with transferring up to 13,500 officials and files. It estimates these costs to range from two to 32 billion. According to the Minister for Regional Development Dostálová, the analysis also includes unrealistic extremes. The Interior Ministry estimated one-time costs at 2.2 billion in the minimal variant. In the maximum version, these would rise to 32 billion crowns, as it assumes the construction of buildings costing 29 billion crowns. Annual costs, according to the study, would increase by 2.3 to 2.7 billion crowns. Dostálová considers the maximum amount unrealistic.

Under the new building law, a two-tier permitting system is to be established in the Czech Republic, headed by the Supreme Building Authority, under which regional building offices will be created, each having branches in municipalities. Currently, there are 730 building offices in the Czech Republic. A potential decrease in building permits by half during the transformation of building offices could mean a loss of up to 204 billion crowns for the economy, or 3.5 percent of GDP, according to the Interior Ministry's analysis.

The document warns that the paralysis of offices caused by problems with relocating employees and materials could last for a year to a year and a half. The decline in production, according to the authors, will not be immediate and can be viewed as lost profit. In the calculations, they based their assumptions on the premise that every million invested in construction has the potential to increase production in the Czech Republic by up to 3.09 million crowns. Representatives of associations of towns and municipalities warn of the risk that the new building law, associated with the transfer of the agenda, could halt construction approvals for one to two years.