The Association of Yekaterinburg Builders sent a letter to the First Deputy Head of the Russian Federation Government Dmitriy Medvedev reporting that the Affordable and Comfortable Housing to Russian Citizens Program was put in jeopardy in Yekaterinburg.

‘The city is one of the country’s building leaders, and the new housing statistics for the last three years (570,000 square meters in 2004, 640,000 square meters in 2005, and 730,000 square meters in 2006) is a striking example of this. Yet the changes made to the Town-planning Code and a number of other laws by the State Duma on December 18, 2006 actually hinder the construction process in Yekaterinburg for at least two years,’ the letter says.

‘Over seventy developers with about 200 land allotments and preliminary projects providing for 3.5m square meters of housing have been ‘outlawed’. This means that the housing program in Yekaterinburg will be totally undermined within one and a half to two years; the citizens’ not receiving 3.5m square meters of dwellings will greatly affect the implementation of the Affordable and Comfortable Housing to Russian Citizens Program in the region. The builders will lay at least 1.5bn RUR worth of claims (plus the lost profits) against the local government; large developers who have skilled workers will have no orders for several years, which will lead to social uprisings,’ states the letter.

The letter was signed by twenty-six people, including the GD of Ceramic Works and Chairman of the Association of Yekaterinburg Builders Evgeniy Lipovitch, GD of Nash Dom Sergey Lekomtsev, and GD of AtomStroyComplex Corporation Valeriy Ananiev.