OREANDA-NEWS. January 19, 2011. “People should pay for real services, and they must be quality services. The government did not wait for the year to begin before it imposed a 15% ceiling on any hypothetical rises in rents and fees. As things stand, these fees might grow even less – by 13-14% – according to available federal and regional economic indices,” the prime minister said during the meeting.
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

This is our first meeting of the new year. Let us begin by discussing our top priorities and long-term goals, as is our custom.

I would like to begin with matters that might appear outside the purview of the federal government and the State Duma inasmuch as the law places them under the jurisdiction of the regional or municipal authorities. However, they are among our most pressing issues, and they concern every Russian citizen and every family. As you can easily guess, I am referring to the problems in housing and utilities. I remember well, and you certainly do, too, how housing and utilities fees skyrocketed at the beginning of last year. The leap was unfounded. That's what I would like to emphasise because it's what matters most: it was totally unfounded! The government had to intervene and force rates down where they were overinflated. In fact, we had to introduce new universal regulations on the matter.

I would also like to note that almost 30% of the letters, appeals and complaints to the government and its community liaison offices concerned housing and utilities in one way or another. People are anxious to see what will happen in the beginning of this year. They are wary of another rent hike. As you may remember, summary rent and utilities fees rose by 25% and even 70% in some regions at the beginning of last year. Let us call a spade a spade: some municipal bosses compensate for their incompetence by raising rent when they don't cover their bases in time.

Certainly, we cannot do without economically motivated adjustments – otherwise, the municipal economy will collapse due to inflation and other processes. But everything should be done in good time. Then, rises in rent will be gradual. People will understand them, and they will be affordable – linked directly to a rise in public income. To that end, the growth of public income should set the precedent for the inflation of fees and taxes, not the other way round. On the other hand, when relevant decisions are not made in time, we see no end to negative consequences.

Then there are the housing and utilities management companies. Their work needs supervision. We have every reason to believe that such companies are somehow closely connected with town halls in certain municipalities. As a result, these companies regard the municipal economy as their feeding trough. They never care about improving it. We discovered 1,193 communities where rent and fees rose by 25% or more at the beginning of last year, while 147 communities exceeded the regulations in place at the time. As I have said, we reacted severely. We took stock of practically every town hall's work until overinflated rents and fees were reduced.

Comprehensive decisions were made. In particular, we transferred consumption quotas for the housing and utilities sector from municipal jurisdiction to the regional level. That was a very important decision because, as you know, much depends on those quotas. They are among the principal levers of government over rents and fees. This decision was made to put an end to the discrepancies and blatant absurdities of the past. We also placed new demands upon management companies concerning the openness and transparency of their system for setting such fees. This was done to prevent arbitrary fees for such services as lights in building entrances, refuse collection and so on.

Action was taken to streamline consumption accounting. People should pay for real services, and they must be quality services. The government did not wait for the year to begin before it imposed a 15% ceiling on any hypothetical rises in rent and fees. As things stand, these fees might grow even less – by 13-14% – according to available federal and regional economic indices. I repeat: all relevant decisions were made well beforehand at the federal level in order to guide the regions and communities in planning their work, balancing their budgets and endorsing the necessary bylaws. I would like to stress that a government decision is not to be loosely interpreted.

As I have said, housing and utilities belong primarily to the jurisdiction of the regional and municipal authorities. Now, I would like to turn to affairs that directly pertain to the United Russia party and its arrangements and agencies.