The time of voluntary transfer to local authorities the powers to issue building licenses has passed. There are the cities of Khmelnytskyi and Poltava which refused to take over these powers – “they are OK without them”. Therefore, we will proceed to mandatory transfer of powers and functions of the State Architectural and Building Inspection of Ukraine (SABI), emphasised Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services in his interview with the “Livyi Bereh”.

According to him, the SABI is the body controlling the existence of certain documents. “At the same time, local self-government bodies approve land allotment projects, allocate or lease this land, as well as define “red lines” and height restrictions together with the local directorate of architecture. We have already passed the stage of voluntary transfer of powers to issue building licenses. Now we should bring it to a close,” said Mr Zubko.

The Vice Prime Minister noted that conceptual changes are being implemented in the field of construction. “We have made an important step – the transition from the categories of building complexity to the class of consequences. And thus, we have eliminated the component of corruption between the 3^rd and 4^th categories, when 0.2 hectare of land is taken for individual construction but a skyscraper is being built there. We have made it the way that in practice only really small objects come in with the 1^st class of consequences. Everything else is a licensing procedure, which involves the existence of a project, technical specifications, territory planning and urban planning restrictions,” said the official.

He stressed that any corrupt decision of the predecessors on construction may be cancelled by the current city council. “The hromada sees the lack of infrastructure, namely social infrastructure. In Kyiv, its interests are represented by the Kyiv City Council. Please make decisions, cancel licenses and city planning restrictions,” Zubko said.

According to the SABI, to date the state architectural and building control powers were received by 89 settlements, including 21 cities of oblast significance: Lutsk, Mariupol, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Uzhgorod, Odesa, Kyiv, Dnipro, Sumy, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, ​​Severodonetsk, Vinnytsya, Chernihiv, Kropyvnitskyi, Mykolaiv and Rivne.