The results of housing and communal services reforming in Russia (by the example of the Ulyanovsk region)

Lomovtseva Nataliya N., Klimovich Luydmila V.

Annotation

The results of housing and communal services (HCS) reforming in the Russian Federation by the example of the Ulyanovsk region were analysed in this article. The main quantitative and qualitative parameters characterizing the development of the sector for the period of 2000-2012 were examined in this study. There is a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of the reform implementation nationwide and in the Ulyanovsk region. Some actual problems of the housing and communal services sector were highlighted in this article. The authors pay attention to the following issues: a low level of private investment in the sector; a high percentage of physical depreciation of infrastructure in the housing and communal services sector and its slow modernization; substandard methods of tariffs formation and their opacity; a problem of resource saving and poor quality of provided services; the absence of an effective system of housing management, despite some various legislative forms of this management. Each of these issues mentioned above was analysed in terms of estimated data that is reflected in the tables and graphs. The comparative analysis let the authors conclude that the targets, which had been set by the reformers, are totally unachieved. This sector is still non-competitive and it leads to further involvement of public authorities in its regulation, including financial matters. The analysis of reforming of the housing and communal services system in the former socialist countries shows that problems and trends in the development of this sector are similar and reforming takes quite a long period of time.

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