Renovation of old urban communities benefits people’s livelihood.

The transformation of old urban residential areas is an important measure to enhance the sense of acquisition of ordinary people, and it is also an important content of implementing urban renewal actions. In the first half of this year, the renovation of old urban communities progressed smoothly. Recently, seven departments, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, jointly issued the Notice on Solidly Promoting the Renovation of Old Urban Residential Areas in 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), demanding that the renovation plan of old urban residential areas in 2024 be reasonably arranged, indicating that China will continue to promote the renovation of old urban residential areas, which will benefit more urban residents.

Positive progress has been made in the transformation.

Ni Hong, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said in an interview at the "Ministerial Channel" of the National People’s Congress this year that in the past five years, 167,000 old residential areas have been renovated nationwide, benefiting more than 29 million households and more than 80 million residents. In 2023, it is hoped that more than 50,000 old communities will be rebuilt, so as to benefit 20 million residents.

The data shows that from 2019 to 2022, in the process of renovation of old residential areas, all localities have renovated over 200,000 kilometers of aging pipelines such as water, electricity and heat letters, installed 70,000 elevators, added and upgraded 2.4 million parking spaces, added 63,000 charging piles for electric vehicles, and added 45,000 community service facilities such as old-age care.

Since the beginning of this year, the renovation of old residential areas has progressed smoothly. According to statistics from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, in 2023, the country plans to start the renovation of 53,000 old urban communities, involving 8.65 million residents. According to the data reported by local statistics, from January to June, 42,600 old urban communities were newly renovated nationwide, benefiting 7.42 million households, and the operating rate was 80.4% according to the number of communities. In terms of provinces, the operating rate of 11 provinces including Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangsu and Inner Mongolia exceeded 95%.

Up to now, 24,000 kilometers of aging pipelines such as water, electricity and heat have been newly renovated, 12,000 elevators have been installed, nearly 300,000 parking spaces have been added, 10,000 charging piles for electric vehicles have been added, 3,200 community service facilities have been added, and nearly 2 million square meters of leisure and fitness venues have been added.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the transformation of old residential quarters focuses on the urgent problems of the masses. Through the transformation, the living environment, facilities and service functions of old urban residential quarters and old communities have been improved, meeting the needs of the people for a better life, and also playing a positive role in strengthening and improving grassroots social governance. It is not difficult to find that after some buildings are equipped with elevators, the "suspended old people" who used to go downstairs for a year or so can often go downstairs to bask in the sun and chat with the old neighborhoods. Some old communities have implemented barrier-free renovation to create a "barrier-free and loving" travel environment.

The travel experience of the disabled, the elderly and pregnant women is smoother. After the renovation of some old communities, convenience service facilities such as breakfast shops, repair shops and side dishes stations have been added, and the fireworks in the old communities have returned.

The "Notice" makes it clear that we should vigorously transform and upgrade residential quarters (including single-family residential buildings) that were built earlier, were out of care and disrepair, had obvious shortcomings in facilities and had strong residents’ willingness to transform, and focus on transforming old urban quarters that needed to be transformed before the end of 2000. Encourage qualified places to study and establish the mechanism of "finding problems through physical examination and solving problems through renovation" in residential quarters, explore the establishment of housing pension and insurance system, solve the problem of "where does the money come from", and form a long-term mechanism for renovation and construction of residential quarters.

Effectively solve difficult problems

How will the transformation of old urban communities be further promoted? On the "ministerial corridor", Ni Hong proposed that the renovation of old residential areas should focus on "corridor revolution", "environmental revolution" and "management revolution". The "Notice" also proposes to carry out a comprehensive physical examination of the old urban communities to be rebuilt, and identify potential safety hazards and shortcomings in facilities and services. According to the physical examination results and residents’ wishes, according to the sensible, quantifiable and evaluable working standards, the content, scheme and construction standards of the renovation are reasonably determined by "one community, one countermeasure", and the problems of difficulties, blocking points and pain points strongly reflected by the masses are effectively solved.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, to promote the "corridor revolution" in a down-to-earth manner is to speed up the renovation of aging and hidden dangers pipelines such as gas, water supply, heat supply, drainage, power supply and communication, and to rectify pedestrian walkways, exhaust flues, ventilation shafts, up and down paths, etc. in the building, and to carry out the safety rectification of residential external walls. Vigorously promote the installation of elevators in conditional buildings. Focus on promoting energy-saving renovation of existing buildings.

To further promote the "environmental revolution", it is necessary to add parking and charging facilities, as well as supporting facilities such as health, sports and fitness according to demand. Focus on the transformation of old urban residential areas, promote the aging and child-friendly transformation of public space and supporting facilities in old residential areas according to local conditions, strengthen the construction of barrier-free environment in old residential areas, make overall plans for the construction of community service facilities such as old-age care, nursery and meal assistance, and improve the service function of "one old and one small" in old residential areas.

To effectively implement the "management revolution" means to establish and improve a joint meeting mechanism with the leadership of grass-roots party organizations, the cooperation of community residents’ committees, the participation of owners’ committees and property service enterprises, and guide residents to negotiate and determine the management mode, management regulations and owners’ rules of procedure of the reformed community to jointly safeguard the transformation results. Actively guide qualified old residential areas to introduce specialized property service enterprises, improve the mechanism of using special funds for housing, and promote the maintenance and renewal of old residential areas to enter a benign track after renovation.

In the process of renovation of old residential areas, the renovation of installing elevators has attracted much attention. In recent years, the number of elevators installed in existing houses has continued to increase, and it has also become the focus to solve the problem that it is difficult for residents of high and low floors to reach a consensus when installing elevators. On June 28th, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the Law on Barrier-free Environment Construction in People’s Republic of China (PRC), which clarified the principle that barrier-free environment construction should be combined with aging renovation, and supported the installation of elevators in existing houses.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will "actively promote the installation of elevators in existing houses with conditions" and solve the problem of "difficulty in installing elevators" in old communities. Residents will be guided to jointly agree on the design, construction, fund sharing and follow-up management and maintenance plan for installing elevators to protect the people’s right to know, participate and supervise. It will guide all localities to actively solve the problem of "one-vote veto" in the process of residents’ consultation through grassroots consultation, dispute mediation and civil litigation. Efforts should be made to install elevators in the form of flat floors to achieve barrier-free access, encourage elevator enterprises to develop elevator products and technologies that meet the needs of installing existing houses, and encourage organizations to purchase elevator equipment in a centralized manner, so as to strive for preferential prices, high-quality after-sales service and quality assurance for residents.

Focus on eliminating potential safety hazards

In the process of rebuilding old urban communities, security issues are also highly concerned. Due to its long history, all kinds of pipelines and facilities are relatively old, and it is easy to have more security risks. Safety accidents caused by obsolete pipelines and facilities have occurred frequently in recent years.

In this regard, the "Notice" requires that pipeline units and professional technicians should be organized to conduct a physical examination and evaluation of the safety status of old residential areas by subcontracting to the film and taking responsibility to the people, focusing on fire-fighting facilities and public parts such as building roofs, external walls and stairs, as well as various pipelines and pipelines, so as to comprehensively identify possible safety hazards in old residential areas. For the discovered safety hazards, it is necessary to determine the safety management and control and hidden danger remediation plans in different categories, and speed up the implementation of rectification as a priority transformation content, ensure that the aging and facilities and components with safety hazards should be completely changed, guide relevant technical institutions to do a good job in inspection technical support, and speed up the elimination of safety hazards around the masses.

At the same time, residents should further improve their safety awareness and strive to form a consensus on transformation. For example, the replacement of rubber hoses for gas users, installation of gas safety devices at the user’s end, maintenance and replacement of aging pipelines such as indoor gas and water supply and drainage of residents will be included in the renovation plan of old urban communities, so as to guide residents to do a good job in cooperating with the construction and jointly maintaining the renovation effect.

In addition, in the process of renovation of old urban residential areas, the main responsibility of project quality and safety of all parties involved in the construction should be compacted and the construction site management should be strengthened. Take targeted measures to accurately eliminate all kinds of construction safety hazards, and effectively prevent and contain production safety accidents such as falling from a height, hitting objects, and lifting machinery injuries. Optimize the site layout, reasonably arrange the construction sequence, strictly control the construction vehicles, and minimize the impact on residents’ lives. Resolutely crack down on behaviors that harm the interests of the people, such as cutting corners and substandard construction quality.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said that it will work with relevant departments to strengthen coordination and cooperation, compact local main responsibilities, urge and guide all localities to focus on serving the people, facilitating the people and ensuring the people’s safety, implement targeted transformation, speed up the elimination of potential safety hazards, and comprehensively improve the living environment, facilities and service functions, so that old communities can also have modern functions, and constantly enhance people’s sense of acquisition, happiness and security. (Reporter Kang Shu)