Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development

　　【Overview】 In 2010, the central government allocated 7.5 billion Yuan of subsidies (including 2.5 billion Yuan of central budget for investment) to continuously expand pilot area for the renovation of rural dilapidated houses. According to the requirements of the central government for increasing efforts on renovation of rural dilapidated houses, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance jointly issued the “Notice on Implementation of Pilot Projects for Renovation of Rural Dilapidated Houses in 2010” and clarified that the pilot area included land border counties, west counties, key counties for national poverty alleviation and development, the counties designated by the State Council to enjoy the western development policy and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The pilot projects were designed to complete the renovation of dangerous houses of 1.2 million poverty-stricken rural households (including the companies in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps), giving priority to the renovation of dilapidated houses of 120,000 poor rural households in the frontier of land border counties (corps farms) and the building energy conservation demonstration combined with renovation of dilapidated houses of 30,000 rural households in severe cold regions. As of the end of 2010, the renovation of dilapidated houses of 1.39 million households was launched and the renovation of dilapidated houses of 1.28 million households was completed. The assigned task was overfulfiled.

　　【Subsidy objects of pilot projects for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas】  The main subsidy objects of pilot projects for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas are rural scattered five-guarantee households living in dangerous houses, objects of the rural minimum living security system, poor families with disabled people and other poverty-stricken households. Compared with 2009, poor families with disabled people were highlighted. Dilapidated houses refer to the houses of Grade D (wholly dangerous) and Grade C (partly dangerous) according to the “Technical Guidelines for Identification of Rural Dangerous Houses (Trial)”. The review and approval of subsidy objects and standards are in strict compliance with the principle of openness, fairness and impartiality and practice the procedures of voluntary application, democratic evaluation of villagers’ meeting or villager representatives’ meeting, township verification and county government approval. Each link must be publicized and priority should be given to the construction of basic safe houses for the rural households living in the most dangerous houses and deep poverty.

　　【Subsidy standard for pilot projects for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas】 In 2010, the central government subsidy standard was 6,000 Yuan per household, and 2,000 Yuan was added to each poor rural household and demonstrative household for building energy conservation in the front line of land border counties (corps farms). Compared with the situation in 2009, the central government subsidy for each household increased by 1,000 Yuan, and the subsidy for each poor rural household and demonstrative household for building energy conservation in the front line of land border counties (corps farms) increased by 2,000 Yuan. After completing the renovation of dangerous houses, various regions can determine the subsidy standards for different areas and various types of people based on the actual situation of house building or reinforcement.

　　【Pilot project construction standards for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas】 The renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas aims to meet the needs of poor rural households for basic safe housing, so the building area and total price are under strict control. The wholly dangerous houses (Grade D) should be dismantled and rebuilt and the partly dangerous houses (Grade C) should be reinforced and renovated. The house building or rebuilding area should be controlled within 40-60 square meters in principle. Design and construction of rural housing should be in line with the farmers' production and living habits and national and local architectural style based on heritage and improvement of the traditional building construction methods to promote technological progress in construction of rural houses.

　　【Supervision and inspection of pilot projects for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas】In order to guide and monitor the implementation of pilot projects for renovation of rural dilapidated houses in various regions and regulate and strengthen the management on renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas, the three ministries strengthened the supervision and inspection. In September 2010, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development held in Urumchi the work conference on pilot projects for  renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas to report the progress made in different regions and clarify the requirements for future work. In December, it organized the inspection on the expansion of pilot projects for renovation of rural dilapidated houses, organized various regions to carry out self-examination or peer review, and randomly selected farmers from the archives management information system of rural households involved in renovation of dilapidated houses for on-site inspection of the pilot projects; improved the archives management information system of rural households involved in renovation of dilapidated houses and strengthened the timely summarizing and field supervision of renovation of rural dilapidated houses to achieve direct household supervision and permanent preservation of archival information. As of the end of 2010, 2.23 million rural households enjoyed the subsidy for renovation of l dilapidated houses and registered in the national archives management information system of rural households involved in renovation of dilapidated houses. Meanwhile, it developed the regulations on supervision and inspection of the demonstrative projects of building energy conservation in the renovation of rural dilapidated buildings with specific provisions on the inspection content and methods.

　　【Effectiveness of pilot projects for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas】 Since the implementation of pilot projects for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas in 2008, the central government allocated a total of 11.7 billion Yuan of subsidies (including central budget for investment of 4 billion Yuan) to support the renovation of dilapidated houses of 2.034 million poor rural households and has basically completed the scheduled three-year task. The implementation of pilot projects for renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas has not only addressed the housing problem of farmers, but also accelerated the infrastructure construction in rural areas; not only expanded rural consumption, but also promoted the employment and income growth of farmers; not only improved the rural living environment, but also protected rural history, culture and characteristics; not only strengthened rural planning and construction management, but also accelerated the construction of rural housing system. The building energy conservation demonstration not only reduced farmers’ spending on heating in winter, but also improved the living comfort, widely welcomed by the masses and grassroots cadres.