Housing is "biggest concern" of young people to have autonomy, says PM

The Prime Minister defended this Sunday, January 1, 2023, the obligation to ensure that the new generation can choose Portugal to work, considering housing "the biggest concern of young people at the time of becoming autonomous", an area where the State is "now acting".

"On this day when we start a new year, it is important to remember that the future is built today, with and for the new generations. In education, in employment, in entrepreneurship, in housing... In the generation of new generations", says António Costa in the Prime Minister's New Year message to Jornal de Notícias.

With great focus on young people and without any reference to the current political situation, the head of the executive recalls the "passion for education" of the also socialist António Guterres, stating that this "was not inconsequential" and that "education in Portugal has changed in these 27 years and, with education, it has changed the country", a passion that "continues today, with coherent and inclusive public policies".

"The new generation offers us the greatest asset a country can have: more qualified citizens. We therefore have an obligation to ensure that these young people can choose Portugal to work in," he warns.

According to Costa, along with the creation of qualified jobs, we need a "fair labour market", adding that "this month the Portuguese Parliament will approve the Decent Work Agenda".

"And we need decent wages. The Medium Term Agreement on Public Administration ensures that by 2023 the basic salary for entry into senior technical careers will be 1,320 euros, putting pressure on the private sector to increase salaries when hiring young qualified people at the beginning of their careers," he said.

"Housing is perhaps the biggest concern of young people when it comes to becoming autonomous," said the Prime Minister

"After decades in which the State has resigned itself to promoting public housing policies, we are now acting, also in conjunction with the municipalities. We approved the first Housing Framework Law, the National Strategy and the first 223 Local Housing Strategies have already been contracted", he says.

The Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), continues Costa, "has 2.7 billion euros earmarked for investment in housing, which will be a real structural change to be implemented by the end of 2026".

"Today we are building the country that will be carbon neutral in 2050, that by the 1940s will have a GDP per capita above the European average, that by 2030 will remove 660,000 people from monetary poverty, halve the number of children in this situation and invest 3% of GDP in R&D, and that by 2026 will have public debt below 100% of GDP. This future is built on the present", he summarised.